NASA Awards TransAstra $850,000 to Clean Space Junk With 'Capture Bags'

With more and more space missions, the junk in the cosmos has continued to increase. NASA is taking steps to clean space by partnering with TransAstra.

NASA And TransAstra Partnership To Clean Space Debris

TransAstra, a startup in space logistics, recently received a $850,000 early-stage NASA contract for a bag that might inflate once it enters orbit. However, as the corporation will be entrusted with testing this equipment on the ground using inflatable struts, this is not a space debris mission for flight.

It will be TransAstra's second contract for inflatable capture bags in recent years. Additionally, they were given a NASA early-stage contract for 2021, which initially emphasized asteroid or space rock capture.

However, TransAstra quickly understood that asteroids and space debris face many of the same difficulties. According to firm representatives, asteroids produce pebbles, while space debris can produce minute fragments that mimic the motion of pebbles in space.

Joel Sercel, founder and CEO of TransAstra, stated in the report that they later concluded this was the best thing ever done for orbital debris cleanup. The business suggests using a space tug they call Worker Bee to maneuver this bag around low Earth orbit to collect numerous pieces of junk.

Such technology might not be ready for launch for several years or even decades. But there will be much work to accomplish even if the mission completely succeeds and gets to space.

According to the European Space Agency, about 36,500 trash particles in Earth orbit are larger than 4 inches (10 cm). There are over 330 million trackable objects, each larger than 0.04 inches (1 millimeter).

A piece of space junk that was supposed to be eliminated by another unrelated debris removal test was struck by another piece of trash in August 2023, potentially generating further fragments in orbit. This incident serves as an excellent illustration of how out of control the space debris situation is getting.

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Tracking Space Junk Technology

London-based ODIN Space has made a significant accomplishment. Its novel approach to detecting space debris has passed its first demo test nearly three months ago. The business has been developing and testing technology to find and track space debris.

The first demonstration sensor for the firm is onboard the D-Orbit ION satellite, which was launched into orbit on June 12 as part of SpaceX's Transporter-8 mission. After more than a week in orbit, ODIN has confirmed with D-Orbit that its onboard sensor is working and has discovered slight acoustic vibrations from its host satellite.

In order to ensure that even the smallest readings from the ION satellite could be captured during this demonstration mission, ODIN's debris sensor had its sensitivity tuned to an incredibly high level.

There are currently tens of thousands of trackable debris fragments orbiting the Earth. This number is expected to increase significantly during the 2030s and beyond as the space industry develops.

Japanese space company Astroscale also wants to participate in the space cleanup. It intends to reduce space junk with its End of Life Services by Astroscale-Multiple (ELSA-M) spacecraft built to catch and deorbit retired satellites.