The satellite is called ADRAS-J Space company Astroscale The operator recently came within 50 meters of a particular piece of space junk during a test mission. In this case, the space junk was the upper stage of a Japanese rocket, which the satellite approached to within just a few hundred meters in April, and then already to within 50 meters in May.
According to plans, ARDAS's mission will be to help remove space debris by actively approaching and assessing it. There is a lot of large space junk in orbit, which, like rocket stages for example, is not ready to rendezvous or dock with another spacecraft. Removing them will require special preparations.
The ARDAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan) satellite captured images of the identified space debris during an approach and rendezvous test. This is the first image of a piece of space debris captured during an operation of this kind.
The photo was taken earlier from a distance
Source: Astroscale
During the maneuver, ADRAS-J was at a fixed distance from space debris and in a fixed location. It was to monitor, measure and photograph the movement of the rocket stage, as well as its condition and integrity. ADRAS-J began its gradual approach using the ground, its GPS and its camera.
When the camera actually saw the stage, which was then a few kilometers away, the satellite continued to maneuver based on what it saw, by comparing the image with the model it had previously been fed. This type of control made approaching within 50 meters possible.
The rocket stage that the spacecraft approached is a cylinder 11 meters long and 4 meters in diameter, and weighs about 3 tons. The removal process is not carried out by ADRAS-J, but only by necessary measurements, without which it will be impossible to remove such unused space objects in the future.
