J-STORIES – Space debris, which continues to increase in large quantities in outer space and could make future space development impossible if left unchecked, is the focus of Astroscale Holdings (Sumida-ku, Tokyo), the world’s first private company specializing in its removal. The company is actively expanding its business with domestic and international partners, including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the UK Space Agency , with the aim of commercializing its services by 2030 .
In outer space, a vast amount of space debris, including defunct satellites, rockets, and their parts and fragments, remains uncollected and unremoved, posing a threat to the safety of space development through collisions between debris and the destruction of new satellites.
According to JAXA, there are currently about 20,000 pieces of space debris larger than 10 cm in orbit, and 100 million pieces larger than 1 mm. In low Earth orbit, debris orbits the Earth at speeds of 7-8 km per second, and a collision with a manned satellite or the International Space Station (ISS) could endanger lives.
As a countermeasure, JAXA is working on the world’s first large-scale debris recovery experiment targeting rocket upper stages and discarded satellites. This program, called the “Commercial Debris Removal Demonstration,” aims to demonstrate technology for removing large debris and to pave the way for private companies to implement debris removal as a business. Astroscale is a partner company in “Phase 1,” which will demonstrate technology for approaching debris, and in August of this year, it was also selected as one of the partner companies for “Phase 2,” which aims to capture and remove debris.
In this program, Astroscale is responsible for the design, manufacture, and operation of the demonstration satellite “ADRAS-J,” which is scheduled to launch in fiscal year 2023 (originally scheduled for launch in fiscal year 2022, but was postponed). The company has already successfully guided its debris removal technology demonstration satellite “ELSA-d” to simulated debris as part of its own business, and is utilizing this technology and expertise in the JAXA program.
Furthermore, building on the success of ELSA-d, the company is developing “ELSA-M,” which can capture and remove multiple pieces of debris in a single mission, in partnership with the US satellite communications company OneWeb, and plans to conduct an on-orbit demonstration experiment by the end of 2024.
Astroscale is also expanding its collaboration with the UK Space Agency, which is actively working on debris removal. With plans to remove two UK satellites by 2026, the company’s UK subsidiary secured an additional £1.7 million in development funding from the UK Space Agency in September 2022. The subsidiary has constructed a satellite manufacturing and operation facility in Oxfordshire, UK, which has recently become operational.
ADRAS-Jの様子を少しだけお見せします🛰
（チラッ👀）#ADRASJ#SpaceSustainability pic.twitter.com/zqVd3mZUn8— 【公式】Astroscale Japan | アストロスケールジャパン (@astroscale_JP) June 14, 2023
At the G7 Hiroshima Summit in May of this year, a commitment to the safe and sustainable use of outer space was expressed, and efforts to address the space debris problem were strongly encouraged. Against this backdrop, the company opened an “Orbiterium” at its headquarters in July, a public facility where people can learn about “space sustainability” in an experiential way.
Miki Ito, CEO of the company’s Japanese subsidiary, told J-Stories in an interview, “On-orbit services can contribute to debris removal and the realization of space sustainability. We want to develop and demonstrate on-orbit services so that they become an everyday basic infrastructure service by 2030.”
Article by: Fumika Sagazaki, Edited by: Katsuro Kitamatsu
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The English version of this article can be found here .
