Space Junk

A rare authentic full-scale working test model of the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1, is up for auction.

​In order to address the problem of space debris, some groups are looking into methods of de-orbiting satellites once their operational lives have ended. One of the latest approaches involves getting the spacecraft to dispense a long strip of tape, instead of using their own propellant.

Remember the garbage-collecting Oscar the Grouch, from Sesame Street? Well, an orbital-debris-gathering spacecraft now bears his name. Known as OSCaR ("Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal"), the semi-autonomous craft is currently being developed at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde has a knack for raising environmental awareness through spectacular and symbolic pieces of art, and his freshly launched Space Waste Lab might be his most impressive installation yet.

Technology designed to clean up space has captured its first bit of simulated space debris in orbit. Part of the RemoveDEBRIS mission, a balloon acted as a target for the RemoveDEBRIS satellite, which fired a weighted net from a range of seven meters (23 ft)​ and successfully snared the "debris."​

An ESA-funded scientist is developing a magnetic space tug to combat the growing problem of space debris. ​Using cryogenic magnets, the tugs could lock onto derelict satellites and deorbit them before they become a hazard to navigation.

After spending seven months tracking aircraft, CubeSat CanX-7 has started the second phase of its mission, deploying four drag sails to help it fall to Earth faster. The system is designed to demonstrate ways that spacecraft could dispose of themselves post-mission, to help the space junk problem.

With an estimated 7,000 tonnes of debris in orbit around our planet, space junk is increasingly becoming a major problem. An innovative solution dubbed the Brane Craft has just been awarded US$500,000 from NASA to further develop the concept that is designed to scoop up this junk.

Swiss research institute EPFL has announced that its CleanSpace One spacecraft will utilize a folding conical net to essentially gobble up bits of space garbage. It's part of an effort to clean up orbital debris.

To combat the problem of , German company Fraunhofer has been granted 25 million euros to create the German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar (GESTRA) system, which can track space junk as it orbits the earth.

ESA's mission to mitigate the environmental impacts on low-Earth orbit from mankind's relentless march into space has entered a new phase, ahead of its make-or-break review before the ESA's Council of Ministers in December 2016.

The ESA has been testing the possibility of using one of mankind's earliest inventions to cope with one of its newest challenges, by testing a concept that would allow satellites to net and de-orbit space debris in a safe and controlled manner.