Rocket Lab has been mindful of space pollution from the get-go. It has a parachute-to-Earth retrieval programme for the first stage of its Neutron rockets, while other components burn up in re-entry.
But it’s the exception. After 65 years of space flight, Nasa estimates roughly 9000 tonnes of space junk – including some 3000 derelict spacecraft, spent rocket stages, hardware released during missions, exploded motors and more – is zooming uncontrollably around Earth at speeds of 25,000km/h.
The amount of debris has been increasing as more satellites reach the end of their lifespan.
The biggest fear, voiced by everyone from UN “space tsar” Aarti Holla-Maini (after Russia deliberately used a missile to destroy an old satellite in December 2021) to Intelsat senior strategy adviser Terry Bleakley in a Herald interview, is the Kessler Syndrome, a disaster-movie scenario in which a space debris collision starts a domino effect that goes out of control.
Now, the first step is being taken towards a cleanup.
On Monday, Rocket Lab will open a launch window for the “On Closer Inspection” mission, which will blast off from Launch Complex 1 at Mahia.
An Electron rocket will carry the ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale Japan) satellite into low-Earth orbit. The Electron’s “kick stage” will ferry the satellite into position alongside the derelict upper stage of H2A, a Japanese rocket used to launch an Earth observation satellite back in 2009.
Pulling up alongside H2A as it tumbles through space at 7 metres per second will be much harder than, say, docking with the International Space Station, which beams precise coordinates to an incoming capsule.
“It’s not under any sort of control,” Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck says of H2A. “It’s completely passive, not sharing any information.
“You’ve got some radar data from the ground to help, but that’s about it. You’ve got to find the stage in the vastness of space and then approach it carefully and rendezvous with it. It’s very tricky.”
Given the difficulties in precisely tracking space junk, “we’re going to receive the final orbital parameters just days before the launch”, Beck told the Herald earlier this week. He said his firm had the unique ability to work within such a tight timeframe.
If Rocket Lab’s kick stage can manoeuvre ADRAS-J into position, it would be a world first, he said.
ADRAS-J will fly around H2A, which measures 11 meters long and four meters in diameter, inspecting it with cameras.
The satellite will observe the derelict rocket for six months, using cameras, collecting data about H2A’s behaviour that will pave the way for future hands-on missions.
Astroscale, backed by a 12 billion yen (NZ$131 million) grant from the Japanese Government, ultimately wants to develop a craft that can dock with a piece of space junk, tugging it back to Earth to burn up in the atmosphere.
Houston, do we have a problem?
Given the boom in low-Earth orbit satellites driven by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Chinese Government, does Beck hold any truck with the Kessler Syndrome, which sent Sandra Bullock and George Clooney spinning through space in Gravity and saw the world below them losing comms and GPS?
“The reality is that, yes, if one piece of space junk collided with another and it fragments off and creates lots more space junk, then that in effect can create a chain reaction if there’s a sufficient amount of things in orbit and sufficient debris. That’s a real possibility.
“We’re a long way from that point today, but we certainly are strong advocates for more control. We’re hoping for a global set of regulations.”
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.