Image copyright SSC Image caption Artwork: The RemoveDebris mission will trial the net method of capture

A UK-led project to showcase methods to tackle space junk has just been pushed out of the International Space Station.

The RemoveDebris satellite was ejected a short while ago with the help of a robotic arm.

The 100kg craft, built in Guildford, has a net and a harpoon.

These are just two of the multiple ideas currently being considered to snare rogue hardware, some 7,500 tonnes of which is now said to be circling the planet.

This material - old rocket parts and broken fragments of spacecraft - poses a collision hazard to operational satellites that deliver important services, such as telecommunications.

Image copyright SURREY SPACE CENTRE Image caption The Guildford control room watches the deployment on a live feed from the ISS

Image copyright NASA/NANORACKS Image caption Astronauts had been storing RemoveDebris since April

The £13m RemoveDebris spacecraft was taken to the ISS in April and stored onboard ahead of Wednesday's release.

The spacecraft was pushed out of an airlock where a robotic arm then picked it up gave it a gentle nudge down and away from the 400km-high lab.

In the process, RemoveDebris became the largest satellite to ever be deployed from the International Space Station. The time was about 12:35 BST.

Ground controllers in Guildford were hoping to pick up a signal from the spacecraft a couple of hours later as it passed over the UK.

"In the first month, month-and-a-half, we will spend our time checking the health of the satellite," said principal investigator Prof Guglielmo Aglietti from the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey.

"Once we know all its systems are behaving properly - only then will we begin our experiments," he told BBC News.

RemoveDebris carries its own "junk" - two small "cubesats" that it will eject and then track. For one of these, the "mother" satellite will demonstrate the laser ranging (Lidar) and camera technology needed to monitor and characterise debris in orbit; for the the other cubesat, it will actually try to snare the object with a net.

There will also be a demonstration of a small harpoon.

For this, the RemoveDebris satellite will extend a boom with a target on the end. A sharp projectile will then be fired at the plate to learn more about how such devices move and impact a surface in micro-gravity.

At the end of its mission, RemoveDebris will endeavour to avoid becoming a piece of junk itself by deploying a large membrane.

This "sail" will increase the drag from air molecules high in the atmosphere and act to pull the satellite down to Earth much faster than would otherwise be the case.

Half the funding for RemoveDebris comes from the European Commission; the other half comes from the 10 companies and institutes that contributed technology - including Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, from where the mission will be overseen.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The junk hardware in orbit represents a collision hazard

Image caption The miniature harpoon to be tested on the mission

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos</s>A space debris removal technology mission called RemoveDEBRIS, led by the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), has been launched into orbit from the International Space Station (ISS).

To read this article, go to Air & Cosmos International.</s>RemoveDEBRIS launched from ISS to test ways to combat space junk

On Wednesday, June 20, 2018 the RemoveDEBRIS satellite was launched from the International Space Station on a mission to study the increasing amount of junk orbiting Earth. This morning’s flight marked a number of firsts to take place from the orbiting lab.

Produced by NanoRacks, RemoveDEBRIS is the largest satellite ever deployed from the ISS. The spacecraft was sent on its mission via aerospace firm’s Kaber Microsatellite Deployer (Kaber), and was the third microsatellite deployment for the commercial company.

RemoveDEBRIS took to the skies with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 located in Florida. The CRS-14 Dragon was launched to the space station on April 2 of this year (2018).

“It’s wonderful to have helped facilitate this ground-breaking mission,” NanoRacks External Payloads Manager, Conor Brown stated in a company-issued release. “RemoveDEBRIS is demonstrating some extremely exciting active debris removal technologies that could have a major impact to how we manage space debris moving forward. This program is an excellent example of how small satellite capabilities have grown and how the Space Station can serve as a platform for missions of this scale. We’re all excited to see the results of the experiments and impact this project may have in the coming years.”

A coalition of research institutions and companies designed and built RemoveDEBRIS which included the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey, and funded in part by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme. Via a release NanoRacks also stated that the coalition also included: Airbus, Ariane Group (France); Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (United Kingdom); Innovative Solutions In Space (Netherlands); CSEM (Switzerland); Inria (France); and Stellenbosch University (South Africa).

The Kaber deployment system can deploy microsatellites weighing up to 187 pounds (85 kilograms). Rather than being specifically-designed for any single system, Kaber can be deployed from Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Antares / Cygnus or SpaceX Falcon 9 / Dragon resupply vehicles.

The spacecraft is designed to perform four experiments its target will be a duo of CubeSats which are slated to be deployed from RemoveDEBRIS. These will serve as “targets” which RemoveDEBRIS will try and capture using a harpoon and net. CubeSats will be deployed from the primary satellite and will be “observed” via cameras as well as a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDar) system. The fourth experiment involves the use of a sail that should cause the spacecraft’s orbit to decay, eventually burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

“The RemoveDebris mission, which captured the public’s imagination at the “Cleaning up space junk” exhibit at the Royal Society in London … is a world-class endeavour and opens the possibilities for future debris removal missions,” Professor Guglielmo Aglietti, a Royal Academy Research Chair in Space Engineering at the Surrey Space Centre, and Principal Investigator for the mission said.</s>Space isn't always so spacious. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev gave us a reminder of the existence of space traffic with a video tweeted Wednesday showing a satellite flying by the ISS.

The satellite shows up well against the background of Earth's blue water and white clouds. Artemyev zooms in to give a better look at the blocky machine. You even make out details of its solar panels. It looks like a mini version of a Borg cube spaceship from Star Trek.

Artemyev doesn't say which satellite it is, but it appears to be the RemoveDebris spacecraft, which was just launched into orbit from the ISS Wednesday. That's why Artemyev was able to track it so cleanly and closely on video.

RemoveDebris is set to demonstrate technology related to clearing up space debris in orbit, including a net and a harpoon designed to capture debris.

NASA estimates there are more than 500,000 pieces of space junk clogging up orbital paths around Earth. The International Space Station is heavily shielded, but can also maneuver to avoid collisions with space debris.

The ISS can't always get out of the way. ESA astronaut Tim Peake shared a photo of a space station window in 2016 showing a small chip caused by debris impact, but it posed no threat to the ISS.</s>"As excited children everywhere wait with anticipation for Father Christmas, why not take a look up into the night sky on Christmas Eve and see if you can spot him, (or rather, the ISS)," the Met Office wrote in a statement on their website days before Thursday's much-anticipated appearance.

The weather service said earlier this week that children looking up at the sky would be thrilled to see the bright light of the space station as St. Nick himself speeding past on his journey around the world.

Indeed, they kept their Christmas promise.

Eager parents took to social media to share the joy of this Christmas miracle, (or, prescheduled orbit, for the Grinches among us) at around 5:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET).

"Took caleb outside to see santa crossin the sky (aka space station) the magic is unreal! @NASA thanks for letting me know #magic #nasa #love," one Mom wrote on Twitter. NASA had also posted times and coordinates where Christmas revelers could "spot the station" in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and other cities. The timely flyover was more visible in the south of the country where forecasters predicted clear weather conditions. @spacegovuk @esa @Space_Station a brief viewing tonight. My daughter waving at the ISS shouting "Santa" Merry Christmas to the ISS crew. — David Downie (@dgdownie) December 24, 2015 "@spacegovuk @esa @Space_Station a brief viewing tonight. My daughter waving at the ISS shouting "Santa" Merry Christmas to the ISS crew." One dad tweeted one small problem to astronaut Tim Peake, one of six crew members currently aboard the station: @mattyjc @astro_timpeake problem with my kids. They're both space station fans. Dad "That's Santa" Kids "Don't be silly, that's Tim in ISS. — Jon (@tillsjon) December 24, 2015 "@mattyjc @astro_timpeake problem with my kids. They're both space station fans. Kids: "Don't be silly, that's Tim in ISS." The International Space Station was built in collaboration by 16 countries and has been continuously crewed since 2000, when the first NASA astronauts arrived on an expedition. It weighs nearly 1 million pounds and is about the size of a football field. It has as much pressurized living and working space as a Boeing 747 passenger jet. The station circles the Earth every 90 minutes, giving those on board a spectacular sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes. Three of the current crew members posted a holiday message on YouTube earlier this month. "Christmas is generally a time for friends and families to get together, and although we can't be with our families this year, we will be orbiting the Earth 16 times on Christmas Day and sending all our good wishes to everybody back down on beautiful planet Earth," said Peake, a flight engineer, in the minute-long clip. The three astronauts then rolled into a synchronized somersault -- Christmas cheer delivered from zero gravity. Here's how you celebrate Thanksgiving in space</s>The problem of space debris — pieces of junk of various sizes, as large as a defunct satellite and smaller than a marble — is not a new one, but as humans send more objects into space, we create more and more of it, making the matter increasingly troublesome. While various methods have been suggested and tried, none too successfully, to tackle this issue, the latest push for it has come from the White House.

President Donald Trump signed the Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3) on Monday, which directs “the United States to lead the management of traffic and mitigate the effects of debris in space.” According to a statement by the White House, SPD-3 “provides guidelines and direction to ensure that the United States is a leader in providing a safe and secure environment as commercial and civil space traffic increases.”

Previous directives by Trump, SPD-1 and SPD-2, instructed NASA to restart crewed missions to the moon and created the regulatory framework for private players interested in space commerce, respectively. Since both those endeavors would lead to an increase in space traffic, the concern with space debris is only natural.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement: “Reducing the growing threat of orbital debris is in the interest of all nations, and NASA looks forward to working with the National Space Council, the Department of Commerce and other partners on a path forward.”

The large debris are created in space by derelict and disused satellites and rockets that get trapped in orbit around Earth. The effect of radiation, unimpeded by the protective layer of atmosphere closer to the planet’s surface, damages those objects further, and sometimes, small pieces break off. Traveling at speeds of up to several thousand kilometers (miles) an hour, even these small objects can deal considerable damage to a larger object they collide with. Such collisions create even more debris, in a sort of vicious cycle.

Matters would be worse if a piece of debris were to hit a functioning satellite, or a space laboratory like the International Space Station (ISS), both things that have already happened. To minimize the possibility of such potentially catastrophic events from occurring, space agencies worldwide track space debris meticulously. NASA regularly monitors about 17,000 piece of junk larger than an apple in size, and about half a million pieces that are larger than a marble. An estimated 200 million pieces or so that are smaller than marbles are in Earth’s orbit, each one a potential hazard traveling at 17,500 miles an hour.

Among various solutions proposed is installing lasers on the ISS to blast away space debris in its path. Otherwise, it has to make regular maneuvers to keep out of the path of debris, something it can’t always do well, leading to a hole in its solar panel. Chinese scientists also proposed using lasers mounted on a satellite to shoot space junk, either destroying it or nudging it on a path toward Earth’s atmosphere, where it would burn up on reentry. Some European researchers are working on a method that uses a harpoon, net and drag sail to clear up the garbage in space, while another wants to use a magnetic tug to change the orbit of debris.

In early 2017, a satellite with a junk-fishing net was sent up by Japan, its 700-meter long electrodynamic tether designed to slow down the speed of debris and push them into a lower orbit, where they would burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. But the tether failed to deploy.</s>The International Space Station deployed a satellite this morning to demonstrate the potential of removing space junk. Back inside the orbital lab, the Expedition 56 crew explored space physics, studied human research and conducted an emergency drill.

A new satellite was deployed into space today from outside the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. Officially named the NanoRacks-Remove Debris satellite, it will explore using a 3D camera to map the location and speed of space debris. It will also deploy a net to capture a nanosatellite that will simulate space junk.

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold worked inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox to troubleshoot gear today for a semiconductor crystal growth experiment. Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, set up dosimeters and measured the station’s acoustic levels to understand the effects on crews.

Arnold later joined fellow Soyuz MS-08 crewmates Drew Feustel of NASA and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos for an emergency drill. The trio practiced evacuating the station in their Soyuz crew ship in the unlikely event of an emergency.

U.S. and Russian cargo ships are due to launch to the space station this summer. Another cargo craft is due to end its stay at the orbital lab next month. SpaceX is counting down to a June 29 launch of its Dragon cargo ship. Roscosmos will launch its Progress 70 cargo craft on July 9. Finally, the Cygnus space freighter attached to the Unity module is due to end its stay July 15.</s>ARISS-Russia is making FM transmissions on June 20 and 21 from two of its Tanusha series of CubeSats, now aboard the International Space Station. Russia’s ARISS organization has been developing the spacecraft in collaboration with Southwest State University in Kursk.

Two earlier Tanusha CubeSats were hand-deployed by cosmonauts last August and are performing cluster flight experiments through communication links. Plans call for hand-deploying Tanusha 3 and 4 this August.

On June 20, Tanusha 3 was to be connected to one of the ARISS antennas on the ISS Service Module to transmit greetings from students in several languages on 437.05 MHz.

ARISS Russia is set to repeat the process on June 21 0730 – 1200 UTC on the same frequency. The ARISS-Russia team also plans to retransmit these signals on the standard ARISS 2-meter downlink, 145.80 MHz, using the JVC Kenwood TM-D700 radio now on the ISS.

The next SSTV transmissions are planned for June 29 – July 1, with images commemorating the various satellites the ARISS-Russia team has developed and hand-deployed from the ISS. This will include SuitSat-1/Radioskaf-1, deployed in February 2006. — Thanks to ARISS-Russia</s>You can see many things from a window of the ISS – not just stunning sunrises and overviews of big cities by night. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev filmed a satellite casually flying by, causing a burst of comments online.

“A satellite flying by the ISS (International Space Station),” Artemyev wrote on Instagram, adding a photo of what looked like a Borg cube spaceship from Star Trek. The blocky object with solar panels can be seen against the backdrop of Earth’s blue oceans and white clouds.

People on Instagram took a closer look at the object, probably looking for familiar traits. The result was a whole shower of suggestions, comparing it to “a washing machine,” “a granny’s chest!” and “a flying suitcase." "An old TV set” and “a radio receiver” were also among the suggestions.

Some also didn’t miss a chance to sarcastically address so-called ‘flat-Earthers,’ who claim that Earth is flat. “’Flat-Earthers,’ where are you?” one person asked, apparently calling the doubters to look at the picture of our round planet.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!</s>A UK-led project to showcase methods to tackle space junk has just been pushed out of the International Space Station.

The RemoveDebris satellite was ejected a short while ago by astronauts using a giant robotic arm.

The 100kg craft, built in Guildford, has a net and a harpoon.

These are just two of the multiple ideas currently being considered to snare rogue hardware, some 7,500 tonnes of which is now said to be circling the planet.

This material - old rocket parts and broken fragments of spacecraft - poses a collision hazard to operational satellites that deliver important services, such as telecommunications.
• China space lab comes down over South Pacific
• Old satellites will need 'rapid disposal'

The £13m RemoveDebris spacecraft was taken to the ISS in April and stored onboard ahead of Wednesday's release.

The station's 17m-long Canadarm2 was used to retrieve the demonstrator from an airlock. The robotic appendage then gave RemoveDebris a gentle nudge that took it down and away from the 400km-high lab.

Ground controllers in Guildford were due to pick up a signal from the satellite a couple of hours later as it passed over the UK.

"In the first month, month-and-a-half, we will spend our time checking the health of the satellite," said principal investigator Prof Guglielmo Aglietti from the Surrey Space Centre.

"Once we know all its systems are behaving properly - only then will we begin our experiments," he told BBC News.

RemoveDebris carries its own "junk" - two small "cubesats" that it will eject and then track. For one of these, the "mother" satellite will demonstrate the laser ranging (Lidar) and camera technology needed to monitor and characterise debris in orbit; for the the other cubesat, it will actually try to snare the object with a net.

There will also be a demonstration of a small harpoon.

For this, the RemoveDebris satellite will extend a boom with a target on the end. A sharp projectile will then be fired at the plate to learn more about how such devices move and impact a surface in micro-gravity.

At the end of its mission, RemoveDebris will endeavour to avoid becoming a piece of junk itself by deploying a large membrane.

This "sail" will increase the drag from air molecules high in the atmosphere and act to pull the satellite down to Earth much faster than would otherwise be the case.

Half the funding for RemoveDebris comes from the European Commission; the other half comes from the 10 companies and institutes that contributed technology - including Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, from where the mission will be overseen.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
The International Space Station (ISS) successfully deploys the UK-led RemoveDEBRIS satellite, which is designed to test the removal of space debris in low Earth orbit. At 100 kg (220 lb), RemoveDEBRIS is the biggest satellite deployed from the ISS.