The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a satellite into Earth’s orbit in 2027 to watch it being destroyed as it reenters the atmosphere. The major reason behind this is to comprehend how satellites disassemble and learn how to stop debris creation in space.
ESA has recently taken a groundbreaking initiative of the Zero Debris Charter to prevent extra debris creation in space in a few years. It is all set to start a mission named Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object (DRACO).
It consists of a 40-centimetre capsule, which is specifically designed to survive the demolition and intended to transfer the gathered data as the capsule goes to the ocean.
Read more: Asteroid 2024 PT5, Earth's mini-moon arrives today, September 29
DRACO is currently in the rudimentary stages, developed by Aerospace engineering company Deimos. It will be approximately the size of a washing machine, with 200 sensors and almost four cameras integrated without any navigation systems.
ESA stated in a press release that the maximum amount of space junk returns to Earth uncontrollably, and the major point is to closely mimic the re-entry.
It’s quite challenging to get the entire data before the capsule goes towards the ocean and according to ESA, there will be around a 20-minute window to gather the entire data.