Elecnor Deimos Is On a Mission to Clean Up Earth’s Orbit

The highly anticipated Elecnor control system is to be developed and guided by Deimos, a subsidiary of the Spanish aerospace company run by Elecnor from the UK. This project is known as the Clearspace-1 and has the sole purpose of clearing up the garbage in space.

This plan is in line with the European Space Agency’s Adrios program framework to finally remove every piece of waste that has been deposited into orbit over the years.

When is the Project Scheduled For?

The plan to take the Elecnor control system to the ultimate test, into space, will start in 2025 although the mission itself got the go-ahead back in 2019. The selection process was a competitive one, set into pace by Clearspace, a Swiss company.

There is a team behind Elecnor Deimos to do all the project’s work to establish and run each satellite maneuver. The other team players are ISQ and Lusospace from Portugal and the German Space Agency. Elecnor Deimos is a Spanish space company with a UK subsidiary.

The Current Debris Status in Space

Currently, the number of unwanted objects above 10 cm diameter in orbit is nearing 35,900, with operational spacecrafts only accounting for around 2000. In the next half a decade, the quantity of objects in orbit might multiply by two or three.

Elecnor Deimos will be part of the team that will take down astronomical debris that has mainly settled in the low-earth orbit zone. If this waste is not removed, it will pose imminent threats in the long-term. The most common hazards are the damaging of new payloads in trajectory, the delay of launches, interference in radio frequencies and light pollution.

If all plans for future launches set to take place in this decade get the go ahead, then all this debris is a preeminent concern and the danger becomes more severe, especially if the spacecraft being sent is carrying crew members onboard. 

That being said, this Elecnor Deimos mission will serve a very significant purpose in the aerospace industry that anyone carrying out a future space exploration mission will no doubt be thankful for.