Young Russian scientists have patented a system of space devices to remove cosmic garbage from Earth’s orbit, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science reported today.
“The students of the Bauman University, under the direction of the professor of the Aerospace Systems chair, Gueorgui Scheglov, projected a unique system of spacecraft to clean the circumferential orbit of the upper stages of carrier rockets and other large objects,” he said the entity in a statement.
According to the Ministry, scientists from the Moscow State Technical University have already received the patent to develop these ships , which makes them “monopolists” in this field.
Professor Scheglov indicated that the system consists of several ships: a main space module and about 15 minor braking modules.
These modules will be attached to the fragments of space debris and will remove them from the orbit of our planet. “In other countries there are similar projects, there are several US patents, but their schemes are less rational than ours.
In particular they have many mechanical arms and large coupling loads.
We study all this before submitting the patent application, ”the scientist told the Russian agency TASS. During the next stage the scientists will design the prototype of the system, for which they require financing.
The developers will present their project at the 70th International Astronomy Congress to be held in Washington. Two weeks ago, the UN warned that the six decades of the space race developed by humans have left thousands of tons of scrap metal in orbit that threaten satellite communication systems and the study of space itself.
Since 1957, when the space race began , more than 5,000 launches have accumulated some 23,000 objects in orbit. Of these, only about 1,200 are satellites in operation, according to the Space Agency Europe a (ESA).
The ESA estimates there are 750,000 objects larger than 1 centimeter useless orbiting at high speed 56,000 kilometers per hour and whose impact against a satellite or a space station can cause serious damage. At the moment there are no technical solutions for this problem and the only measure is to prevent the creation of new scrap metal.
Source: Msvnoticias
