SpaceX’s Secret Weapon to Chomp Up Space Debris

How SpaceX's Starship Will Chomp Up Space Debris.

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Thumbnail Credit: Teslarati & Gravitation Innovation

As the space industry continues to expand and make new developments, SpaceX and many other companies are beginning to face criticism on their role surrounding space debris.

While space debris may not seem like much of a problem right now, many experts have warned that as we fill up the sky above with more and more satellites and other objects, we are actively increasing the change of a disastrous collision occurring. Generally speaking, all space debris or space junk is the result of us sending objects up into the atmosphere and then having them remain in orbit until they re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere. Smaller objects that are in lower orbits usually return quickly to Earth. However, space debris or satellites that are left at a much higher geostationary orbit of 36,000 kilometers, can continue to circle the Earth for hundreds of years.

One example specific to SpaceX is their Starlink satellites. A few astronomers have argued that Starlink’s satellites are crowding up the view of the sky and have also now been forced to change their orbit over risks of a collision. While it is rare for a collision between two satellites to occur, a few countries such as the US, China and India have used missiles in the past to test blowing up their own satellites. In doing so, these practice explosions have created thousands of small pieces of space debris in Earth’s orbit.

With some people concerned about space debris, one solution that has got many people excited is Elon Musk’s idea of using SpaceX’s Starship to chomp up space debris. In a tweet posted back in July, Musk was asked whether SpaceX had thought of any way to try to collect space debris given space debris could directly affect their business if it got out of control. In response to this tweet, Musk said, “Yes, we can fly Starship around space and chomp up debris with the moving fairing door.”

For reference, Starship’s fairing door is the large cover that would go over top of any cargo the Starship is taking to space. Once Starship reaches orbit or the cargo’s destination, the fairing door would then open up and let any cargo out. And then lastly, the fairing door would close once again in preparation for the trip back down. With SpaceX already working on Starship’s fairing door for the purpose of transporting cargo into space, the company may also see the added benefit that after the cargo is gone, Starship can be used to bring space debris back down safely to Earth.

While Musk hasn’t yet given any more information on whether SpaceX is actively working on this solution, with this tweet, it is clear that the company has at least given the idea some thought.

As of right now, the problem of space debris doesn’t pose a threat to space exploration missions. Instead, the main risk surrounding space debris in 2021 is that it could damage or collide with other satellites in orbit. In fact, every year satellites including the International Space Station have to carry out collision avoidance maneuvers in order to avoid getting damaged by any space junk. Since 1999, the ISS has performed a total of 25 debris avoidance maneuvers.

By using SpaceX’s Starship to clean up dead satellites and other space junk that poses a risk to active satellites, this idea could prove to be yet another opportunity for SpaceX to use Starship in ways that other space rockets had the option of doing before.

However, for now SpaceX’s main goal is getting Starship into orbit. Once the company can successfully make trips with Starship into orbit, we will likely learn more about the specific use cases of Starship. Whether it be using Starship as a telescope, a spacecraft to clean space debris or as an interstellar hotel, the possibilities truly are endless.

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