Space Sweepers: Viasat part of first end-to-end space-debris removal demonstration

Company is providing ground-system support for Astroscale's mission

Astroscale's ELSA-d project uses a 'servicer' satellite to capture a smaller 'client' to

simulate how clearing space pollution in low-Earth orbit could work. (Image: Astroscale)

There’s a lot of debris floating around in space. In particular, the area just a few hundred
miles above Earth, known as low-Earth orbit (or “LEO”), has become increasingly congested
with space pollution ranging from flecks of paint to pieces of rockets and defunct satellites.
 
It’s an area of increasing concern for the space industry, especially as a growing number of
LEO satellites are being launched and thousands more are planned in coming years. Viasat
has been a strong proponent of addressing the collision risk that comes with this congestion,
and while some potential solutions are still pending on the regulatory side, there’s another
area that shows near-term promise: beginning the cleanup of the debris already up there.
 
One company at the forefront of developing the technology to do just that is Astroscale. In
March, the company launched two small spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. One is the
“servicer” satellite, a prototype for a future debris-clearing spacecraft. Attached to it is a
smaller satellite called “the client,” which poses as a defunct satellite for the demonstration.
It’s all part of “End of Life Services by Astroscale” (ELSA) — a program offering operators the
chance to tidy up the skies after their satellite missions have ended.
 
As part of the ELSA-d (demonstration) project, Viasat is providing a portion of the ground
network required to communicate with the client satellite. Along with three other ground-
segment partners — plus Astroscale’s own ground station in Japan — Viasat’s Real-time
Earth (RTE) network will provide the necessary link to the satellite for a series of tests, slated
to start this summer.
 
Astroscale’s ground-segment engineer Alexandra Gravereaux explains that the two satellites
will perform three distinct phases scheduled over the coming year.
 
“The first phase involves separating the client satellite from the servicer spacecraft and then
reattaching it,” she says. “For the subsequent phases, we’ll separate a little bit wider and use
our on-board cameras to recognize the magnetic plate on the client spacecraft and then
attach to it.”
 
Initially, she says, the client spacecraft simulates a non-tumbling satellite. The following
phase, Gravereaux adds, will be the most challenging as the team attempts the same
capture with the client tumbling.
 
“All three phases will be heavily reliant on Viasat, because the client will be separated,” she
says.
 
Real-time Earth
Viasat’s Real-time Earth platform was specifically designed for applications like these, says
RTE business manager Aaron Hawkins.
 
“We have a lot of buildout in mid-latitude locations, which can cover a lot of spaces you’d
miss if you were just going over the poles,” he says. “That filled in a lot of gaps for
Astroscale.”
 
Having bigger antennas also helps, Hawkins adds.
 
“We have larger aperture antennas, 5.4 meter and 7.3 meter that allow customers like
Astroscale to close the link sooner and reduce the bit-error rate,” he says. “That gives them
a cleaner signal to and from the satellite along the passes.”
 
John Williams, who heads up Viasat’s RTE program, mentions another plus: The client
satellite was built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) — a company Viasat knows well.
 
“Three years ago, we established a special relationship with SSTL so that we could, in our
software, take their protocol and implement it in our baseline so that we could interface
with all of their spacecraft that they fly over time,” Williams says. “That relationship has
prove to be highly valuable with customers like Astroscale, where we're one of the few
companies that offer that Saratoga protocol with the Surrey satellites. Those kind of teaming
relationships are key to our business model.”
 
Gravereaux says that made it very easy and efficient to test the system with Viasat.
 
“It saved a significant amount of time and effort with the integration,” she says. “The risk of
it not working was lower because we knew the spacecraft was compatible with the Viasat
ground stations.”
 
Developed over the past few years and still expanding, RTE is a network of ground stations
around the globe aimed at giving satellite operators, without their own ground segment, an
affordable option. RTE also improves on many previous connections these satellites had by
increasing the number of ground stations and adding the ability to transmit information in
real time.
 
“There’s a wide variety of things you can do from space, and the vision for our team has
always been to support all those different types of missions,” says Williams. “We’re proud to
be supporting Astroscale with ELSA-d. It’s something we see as essential to the future of
space, when just one bad LEO incident can cascade into a much bigger situation.”
 
A strong connection
Compared to LEO satellite applications such as Earth observation, which generally require
only brief connections to transmit data back to Earth, this ELSA-d mission requires up to 30
minutes of connectivity for the servicer to attach to a piece of debris via the magnetic
docking plate. To address this, Astroscale — along with its ground-segment partners — put
together a total of 16 ground stations across 10 countries for seamless connectivity.
 
A future scenario for the ELSA system would see the servicer spacecraft approaching a
defunct satellite and attaching to it magnetically. (Gravereaux says Astroscale’s magnetic
interface is at the heart of its proprietary technology.) Once attached, the servicer goes into
action and pushes the debris into the atmosphere, where it burns up.
 
“This is the first end-to-end debris removal mission of its kind, and it wouldn’t be possible
without all the hard work being done on ground stations,” Gravereux says. “It’s a little bit
less visible to the general public, but all of the collaboration has been crucial to the success
of this mission.”
 
Hawkins notes that, along with the technological firsts with ELSA, there’s a bigger story
everyone should pay attention to.
 
“We are very excited to be a part of this mission,” Hawkins says. “It's innovative, breaking
new ground, and it also relates to something that we can champion together in the industry,
which is sustainable space. We all need to ensure we're taking care of this limited resource
— particularly with LEO orbits — so everybody can continue to use it into the future.”