This Pac-Man Spacecraft Will Devour a Satellite

here’s a lot of trash in space. Rather than add more to the space garbage dump, Swiss researchers hope to build a spacecraft that eats small, non-functioning satellites, Michael Rundle reports for Wired UK. Scientists at Switzerland’s EPFL Center for Space Engineering announced their plans this week. However, the mission, dubbed CleanSpace One, has been in the works for a long time. Switzerland launched its first satellite in 2009—a tiny cubesat called SwissCube. But researchers knew that like all satellites, the SwissCube wouldn't last forever. After three years of brainstorming, researchers are now in the process of designing and building a spacecraft equipped with a camera to find the satellite and a net to snag and eat it in orbit. More

(Source: Smithsonian - Jul 9)