Want to snag a satellite? Try a net

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Want to snag a satellite? Try a net

23 March 2015 One of humanity’s oldest technologies, the humble fishing net, may yet find a new role in space: bringing down dead satellites.

The behaviour of nets in orbit was recently checked on an aircraft flying parabolic arcs to create brief periods of weightlessness.

“We shot nets out of a compressed air ejector at a scale-model satellite,” explains ESA engineer Kjetil Wormnes.

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[Waspie_Dwarf]

Weightless net testing for derelict satellite capture

The use of deployable nets to catch derelict satellites as they tumble in space was explored recently in weightlessness. The experiment was carried out during a week-long visit to the National Research Council of Canada’s site on Ottawa airport in February 2015, including two days of parabolic flights on their Falcon 20 aircraft.

The first part of the video shows a nylon net being fired from a compressed air gun between two researchers, shown in real time. The net entangled a scale-model satellite. The next part shows slowed-down high-speed HD footage from cameras placed both ahead of (left) and behind (right). This footage will be used to complete computer simulations (the output is seen in the final part of the video), which will help to develop full-sized nets for space debris removal, potentially starting with ESA’s e.Deorbit mission.

The National Research Council of Canada parabolic flights were contracted by Poland’s SKA Polska company, overseeing the research project for ESA. Other members of the project team include Italy’s STAM company and Poland’s OptiNav company.

Credit: ESA

Source: ESA - YouTube Channel