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Lingering debris closer to earth's atmosphere poses a hurdle to the on-orbit satellites
As technology grows, scientists working in space research are discovering new things now and then. As the world is stepping into a modern era, the findings on space and mission to Mars are in closer proximity.
Within a couple of months, astronomers have discovered that Venus clouds carry phosphine, which could house small living beings. The far more exciting finding was at the moon. Scientists confirmed the presence of lunar water in large quantities in the form of ice clusters present on the dark side of the moon. NASA's spacecraft has touched Bennu, one of the oldest asteroids predicted to be a part of the solar system before it broke into pieces. The mission is to bring a scoop of the asteroid back to earth, which will serve in finding more insight into the evolution of the solar system.
More than this, there are a million other things about space that need keen observation. But often, lingering debris in the outer region poses a hurdle to scientists. Henceforth, space organisations have taken up the mission to clear motionless debris from space.
Clearing debris from space
Human activities in space have generated a large amount of trash over time. Recently, it is turning to be an issue for spacefaring countries. The collision between orbiting debris and satellites has occurred on multiple occasions triggering a threat to the money and effort spent on setting them at the right place.
It is estimated that around 600 pieces of debris have re-entered the earth's atmosphere in 2014. In the past five decades, more than 4,800 rocket launches have put 6,000 satellites into orbit. Even though only 1,000 satellites are at a functioning state today, the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN) follows and reports on a catalogue of over 12,000 orbiting entities. The close watch is to stop debris from disturbing satellites. However, just 6% of the debris under the SSN catalogue is active. The effective way of bringing this under control is by removing debris from where they are at high density.
RemoveSAT, a space mission to remove debris, is on track. A range of technologies like a harpoon and LiDAR-based vision sensor is used in the mission to find and clear debris. The success of ADR missions crucially depends on vision-based sensors. The VNR consists of two sub-systems, namely,
- A colour camera
- A flash imaging LiDAR
The VNR captures 3D images at distances ranging from 0.5 to above 100m. The mass of the sensor is just 2 kilograms. The mission is completed and RemoveSAT will be destroyed in the atmosphere in the upcoming months. Tens of colours and 3D images captured in-orbit are now available.
RemoveDEBRIS demonstrates the simplicity of the use of flash imaging LiDAR for ADR and identifies remedies to maintain measurement accuracy in challenging operating conditions with powerful and varying light interferences.