A pure Mach service for all - and who invented it? The Swiss, of course! The mini-satellite "Clean Space One" is to bring dangerous space junk target to crash. As a model for the technical implementation is a creature.
It was a pretty ugly vision, Donald Kessler was there. NASA consultant developed 20 years ago, the scenario of a man with no space - space junk because we could stop for a long time from leaving the earth. The risk of collision would make space travel a deadly threat to astronauts. By a kind of snowball effect, Kessler warned, could multiply the number of flying scrap particles - and lock us up behind an impenetrable barrier.
Tens of thousands scrap particles already orbiting the earth. But a project from the model country for good housekeeping is now to help set that Kessler's doomsday scenario is not true. Researchers at the Swiss Space Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, have introduced on Wednesday its plans for "Clean Space One." You want to start within three to five years, a cleaning mission. And a first target is to carry old satellite out of orbit, if successful, could then be further operations.
Jokes about the fact that it is the considered to be meticulous Swiss, of course, want to clean all the press, on almost. But people think of the EPFL is quite serious. You want to test their technology on a prestigious project in the Alpine republic: "We have a clear goal in mind," says Volker Gass, head of the Swiss Space Center, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We will first go to the two satellites, the Swiss universities have started in 2009 and 2010."
"The universities have to clean up its worldwide scrap"
The mini-orbiter "Swiss Cube 1" and "TISat 1", both with four-inch cubes are edge length, the so-called pico. These low-cost flight equipment are gladly used by universities to offer students a practical education - that revolve around "Uwe" from Würzburg, "Compass" from Aachen or "BeeSat" from Berlin, 600 to 700 kilometers altitude.
But at some point, the lifetime of the mini-missiles to an end. And then what? "The world's universities must also clean up their waste," says Gass. And it should be "Clean Space One" help.
The cosmic Towing will be only slightly larger than the missiles that he specifically intended to crash. If he's - has approached goal, he must catch it - with 28,000 kilometers per hour gusting. The mechanism says Gass, should be based on the model of a sea anemone: "The stretching out their tentacles and pulls her booty at the right moment to her breast." Once this is done, then the duo will fall on a death rate. Annealing of a satellite in Earth's atmosphere should be guaranteed.
With a dimension of 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters could be "Clean Space One" bring relatively inexpensively into space. "There are so many opportunities for small satellite launch," says Gass. "The new European launcher Vega, for example, would be a good way, just because Switzerland has supported the project." But an Indian rocket, he considers an interesting option.
Some eight million euros total cost
The issue of space debris also employs other space travel-Nations. For example, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), for example with "deodorant" a satellite designed, could dispose of larger counterparts. If and when the orbiter will fly ever, it stands in the truest sense of the word in the stars.
DISPLAYMeanwhile, the scrap is mainly observed in the universe. The U.S. Strategic Command operates a catalog with disused objects in orbit. And are constantly being added entries. The Europeans are working to monitor the universe by radar. And only a few days ago announced the successful test of a DLR-performance laser system, which is soon to capture even particles with a diameter of only a few centimeters. But such particles can satellites and the International Space Station are dangerous.
"We need to scrap the existence of this and the risks arising from proliferation risks are immediately apparent," says the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier. "Clean Space One" will do just that. The project has the charm that it will be very cheap. Tens of millions of Swiss francs, ie about eight million euros, initially estimated, with the launch already calculated.
If 'Clean Space One "actually fly once the project came at the right time. Some 20 years after his first warning Donald Kessler has only a few months back sounded the alarm: The amount of space debris have now reached a "tipping point," he warned as a lead author of a report by the National Research Council (NRC). There are so many particles that they could multiply by constant collisions with each other constantly. They had, according to Kessler, "lost control".
It was a pretty ugly vision, Donald Kessler was there. NASA consultant developed 20 years ago, the scenario of a man with no space - space junk because we could stop for a long time from leaving the earth. The risk of collision would make space travel a deadly threat to astronauts. By a kind of snowball effect, Kessler warned, could multiply the number of flying scrap particles - and lock us up behind an impenetrable barrier.
Tens of thousands scrap particles already orbiting the earth. But a project from the model country for good housekeeping is now to help set that Kessler's doomsday scenario is not true. Researchers at the Swiss Space Center at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, have introduced on Wednesday its plans for "Clean Space One." You want to start within three to five years, a cleaning mission. And a first target is to carry old satellite out of orbit, if successful, could then be further operations.
Jokes about the fact that it is the considered to be meticulous Swiss, of course, want to clean all the press, on almost. But people think of the EPFL is quite serious. You want to test their technology on a prestigious project in the Alpine republic: "We have a clear goal in mind," says Volker Gass, head of the Swiss Space Center, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We will first go to the two satellites, the Swiss universities have started in 2009 and 2010."
"The universities have to clean up its worldwide scrap"
The mini-orbiter "Swiss Cube 1" and "TISat 1", both with four-inch cubes are edge length, the so-called pico. These low-cost flight equipment are gladly used by universities to offer students a practical education - that revolve around "Uwe" from Würzburg, "Compass" from Aachen or "BeeSat" from Berlin, 600 to 700 kilometers altitude.
But at some point, the lifetime of the mini-missiles to an end. And then what? "The world's universities must also clean up their waste," says Gass. And it should be "Clean Space One" help.
The cosmic Towing will be only slightly larger than the missiles that he specifically intended to crash. If he's - has approached goal, he must catch it - with 28,000 kilometers per hour gusting. The mechanism says Gass, should be based on the model of a sea anemone: "The stretching out their tentacles and pulls her booty at the right moment to her breast." Once this is done, then the duo will fall on a death rate. Annealing of a satellite in Earth's atmosphere should be guaranteed.
With a dimension of 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters could be "Clean Space One" bring relatively inexpensively into space. "There are so many opportunities for small satellite launch," says Gass. "The new European launcher Vega, for example, would be a good way, just because Switzerland has supported the project." But an Indian rocket, he considers an interesting option.
Some eight million euros total cost
The issue of space debris also employs other space travel-Nations. For example, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), for example with "deodorant" a satellite designed, could dispose of larger counterparts. If and when the orbiter will fly ever, it stands in the truest sense of the word in the stars.
DISPLAYMeanwhile, the scrap is mainly observed in the universe. The U.S. Strategic Command operates a catalog with disused objects in orbit. And are constantly being added entries. The Europeans are working to monitor the universe by radar. And only a few days ago announced the successful test of a DLR-performance laser system, which is soon to capture even particles with a diameter of only a few centimeters. But such particles can satellites and the International Space Station are dangerous.
"We need to scrap the existence of this and the risks arising from proliferation risks are immediately apparent," says the Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier. "Clean Space One" will do just that. The project has the charm that it will be very cheap. Tens of millions of Swiss francs, ie about eight million euros, initially estimated, with the launch already calculated.
If 'Clean Space One "actually fly once the project came at the right time. Some 20 years after his first warning Donald Kessler has only a few months back sounded the alarm: The amount of space debris have now reached a "tipping point," he warned as a lead author of a report by the National Research Council (NRC). There are so many particles that they could multiply by constant collisions with each other constantly. They had, according to Kessler, "lost control".
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