Stunning close-up timelapse of bus-sized rocket part captured by space debris monitor: Watch
This bus-sized rocket part has been quietly orbiting the earth for 15 years
Space junk is quietly littering the universe above us, and a Japanese company Astroscale is on a mission to identify and remove them. Now, it has taken stunning close-ups and timelapse of an 11-metre long, 15-year-old rocket part that's quietly moving above the earth. Astrolscale plans to remove such debris in the coming years.
The spacecraft ADRAS-J, which stands for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, had released photos of the 3-tonne rocket stage. It is suspended in microgravity and orbiting the earth.
According to the company, ADRAS-J is "the world's first attempt to safely approach, characterise and survey the state of an existing piece of large debris through Rendezvous and Proximity Operations."
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The controlled fly-around operations of the space debris captured the rocket debris from various angles and lighting conditions, the company said in a release.
It hopes that the timelapse taken by its cameras will "lay the groundwork for future removal and a sustainable space environment."
The rocket part being monitored is from Japan, nearly 11 metres in length and four metres in diameter, and weighs nearly three tonnes, the size of a city bus.
"The information gained from these images will provide essential data that will support a future mission to capture and remove the object," Astroscale said in the release on July 30.
Launched in February this year, the ADRAS-J spacecraft was selected by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for Phase I of its Commercial Debris Removal Demonstration or CRD2 programme.
CDR2 is an initiative by Japanese space agency JAXA which aims to develop debris removal technologies.
(With inputs from agencies)
