TROY, NEW YORK — Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are developing a new orbital device that would aid in cleaning up space debris surrounding the planet.<br /><br />There are around 128 million pieces of debris in space as of January 2019, according to a report by the European Space Agency.<br /><br />According to a news release by the institute, the spacecraft will be called OSCaR or Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal. The space probe will be a CubeSat, a small, rectangular satellite, which will be made of up three 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 x cm units. <br /><br />The first CubeSat units will contain GPS, data storage and communication systems while the second will consist of a propulsion system. The third unit would contain nets and tethers which would be used to capture the space debris.<br /><br />The device will be sent to outer space aboard larger spacecrafts and then be released.<br /><br />OSCaR would use sensors such as thermal and RADAR imaging sensors to help locate and capture space debris.<br /><br />The spacecraft will automatically destroy itself and all the debris it has captured within five years, according to the Rensselaer Institute news release.
