A US company has been awarded a contract by NASA to tackle the rapidly growing problem of space debris.
NASA awarded an $850,000 contract to TransAstra, a private American company, to build a space debris bag in Earth orbit. This was reported by SpaceNews.
According to the plan, it is necessary to create a special inflatable “bag” that will inflate the orbit and collect debris with the help of a space tug. But before this design can fly into orbit, it will need to be tested on Earth.
This will be TransAstra’s second contract in the last two years for inflatable trap bags. They also received an early stage contract from NASA that was initially focused on retrieving asteroids or space rocks.
It is worth noting that before such technology is ready for space flight, it may take years or decades. However, if it succeeds and actually reaches space, there is still a lot of work ahead.
The European Space Agency estimates that there are approximately 36,500 debris objects in Earth’s orbit that are over ten centimeters in diameter. All the objects that can be tracked are about 330 million objects – each of them larger than one millimeter.
It was previously reported that the James Webb telescope provided an image of the spiral galaxy M51, known as “Vyr”.
Source: korrespondent
I am Ben Stock, a passionate and experienced digital journalist working in the news industry. At the Buna Times, I write articles covering technology developments and related topics. I strive to provide reliable information that my readers can trust. My research skills are top-notch, as well as my ability to craft engaging stories on timely topics with clarity and accuracy.