“Keep future space exploration possible, help making it safer and environmentally responsible.”
our motto
Space debris is an issue of global concern that threatens our continued use of near-Earth space for the benefit of humankind.
Nowadays there is debris with various sizes almost everywhere in Earth orbit. While in the case of objects from LEO it is possible to decay to the disposal orbit and have the debris burn down in atmosphere, it’s much harder in the case of Geostationary objects as much greater masses of propellants are required to de-orbit them to Graveyard orbit.
Even burning down objects in atmosphere is not an ideal solution. One obvious drawback, is the environmental impact. Though the contribution is negligible in comparison with the production on Earth, it’s still something that should be considered. Less obvious is the potential for an incident in case of uncontrolled residual parts falling down to Earth.
Mostly however, the biggest risk is related to future missions. As the amount of debris continues to rise, so does the risk of collisions potentially creating new debris. The most catastrophic, but not impossible, scenario being that Earth will be surrounded by so much debris, that it might block further space missions. This would impact space science and exploration, our current state of living by impacting the ability to monitor and predict weather or utilization of GPS.
Our goal is therefore to provide a technology for capturing and controlled de-orbiting of debris to what we call a “Junkyard orbit”. This is, for the moment, to reduce the risk of collision with an active satellite. In the future however, the plan is for this orbit to be managed and debris should be either refurbished or recycled for secondary use. To read more, please visit our page on CMELIAK technology.