The first space garbage truck will be able to clean up garbage by hugging it

The first British garbage truck for space will be able to remove garbage using a “bear hug” or will become

the robotic equivalent of a garbage collector.The two methods are being proposed by companies competing for a contract with the UK to launch a cleanup mission as early as 2026. The winning prototype will hunt down and capture two disabled satellites, then throw them into the atmosphere where they will burn up.

Rory Holmes of ClearSpace, one ofrival companies, told Sky News: “For the last six decades we've been launching satellites into space without really thinking about what happens at the end of their lives. When they run out of fuel or break, we simply throw them away. We leave them, and they, in turn, fill outer orbital space. Now we are in a situation where this space is quite congested, and all these different «dead» objects are rushing around, crossing each other's paths, sometimes colliding, and sometimes actually getting in the way of what we want to do in space."

ClearSpace is developing a spaceship that looks a bit like a giant squid, with lots of tentacles. Holmes calls it a "bear hug".

"We must find a way to capture and capturethese objects so that they do not rotate and cannot change their position in space,” he said. “One of the advantages of the mechanism we have is that we can completely wrap around an object before we secure it tightly to make sure it can’t escape and can’t fly off in a direction we don’t expect.”

Another Oxfordshire-based company, Astroscale, will use a spacecraft with a long robotic arm to grab debris.

Jason Forshaw, head of the company's division, said developing a spacecraft that could evaluate and capture a failed satellite was a huge challenge.

“The first task is to inspect the wreckage when you get thereget there to see what condition they are in. The second stage is to actually approach the satellite and fix it. This requires sophisticated robotics,” says Forshaw.

The spacecraft will have to operate autonomously. Radio signals from ground control would arrive too late with such a fast moving satellite.

Astroscale hopes satellite makerswill begin to add a standardized docking plate to their designs to make it easier to secure another spacecraft, either for refueling and maintenance, or deorbiting.

According to the UK space agency,There are more than 130 million pieces of space debris in Earth's orbit, from tiny blobs of paint to old satellites, spent rocket bodies and even tools dropped by astronauts.

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