Japan space agency to use GPS to destroy space debris

Artist’s rendering of an electrodynamic tether grabbing a piece of space junk. (from JAXA video)

Japanese space agency JAXA is testing a way to collect and destroy space junk. Space debris is becoming an increasingly large problem for space agencies and private companies.

A prototype system called the Kounotori Integrated Tether Experiments (KITE) arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Dec. 12 that will allow engineers to test the mechanisms that propel a tether-equipped spacecraft.

The spacecraft would deploy a 700-meter-long electrodynamic tether (EDT) and guide it towards a piece of space junk. Once the tether has identified its target, it will initially be directed towards the debris using GPS. As it gets closer, operators will use optical cameras to guide it.

The tether would latch onto the orbiting hunk of trash, which the spacecraft would then drag low enough to be incinerated in Earth’s atmosphere.

The EDT spacecraft will target large pieces of space junk, ranging in size from a few hundred kilograms to a few tons.

In 2013, more than 500,000 pieces of space debris were being tracked by various space agencies, according to NASA.

An illustration of the method is shown below in a JAXA video.

https://youtu.be/AIBXnRz5-7g