Translator: Louis Lafleur Reviewer: Hiroko Kawano
I'm a garbage collector.
But the garbage I am collecting is a bit different from ordinary garbage.
My workplace is space.
Please watch this simulation video.
You see, there are numerous dots going around the earth.
This simulation video shows
man-made satellites and rocket parts that are orbiting the earth.
And these red dots are the ones which are no longer being used.
In other words, garbage.
What are all these?
They're satellites and rocket parts which are out-of-use.
While a rocket's function is bringing apparatus to space,
some parts of it will remain there.
And it'll break into numerous fragments when explosions happen.
This is what is happening in space though we cannot see it in the sky.
Could we possibly imagine
that space behind the sky is filled with garbage?
But as a matter of fact,
space debris is creating a serious problem.
An object orbiting the earth moves at seven to eight kilometers an hour,
which is faster than bullets.
As for the size of these parts of rockets,
they can be as big as a large bus.
On the other hand, small fragments can be as small as grains of sand.
In short, these objects of various sizes
are flying around at extremely high speeds around the earth.
When there are so many of these,
you might fear
that there would be some collisions.
Actually, there are.
In 2009, there was a collision between American and Russian satellites.
This collision resulted in producing over 10,000 new pieces of space debris.
The very threat of space debris
is that the debris fragments newly created by the collision
will produce more fragments by coliding with other debris.
In this way, the number of debris is increasing more and more,
which is viewed as a problem.
You may think space is far distant,
but in reality, you all use space technology in your daily life.
For example,
you may have used GPS technology like a map application to get here.
Or you may have checked the weather forecast this morning.
Or some of you probably watch satellite television at home.
All of these are made possible by satellites.
Moreover,
think of the aviation and maritime transportation infrastructure
as well as business transactions, services, and disaster observations,
satellites are being used at every basis of our lives.
So should there be a collision caused by space debris,
satellites will be broken in an instant,
which will impede us from maintaining our current, convenient lifestyle.
I am not saying that in such critical situations
the world has been doing nothing to solve this issue.
For over a decade, NASA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency,
together with other major space agencies and research institutes
have already started working on the space debris problem.
And the United Nations
are trying to set international rules about space debris.
However, when the world try to make these rules together,
political, legislative, money problems among so many others arise
entangled with each other, and it's hard to move forward.
Under such circumstances, we thought
only private profit-pursuing companies can break through this stagnant situation.
And thus founded
was a space debris removal company,
which is where I am currently working.
Now,
what is required in starting a space debris company?
The first thing is money, of course.
Next,
we need technology for space debris removal.
The third is to create a business model;
I'm often asked who will pay for this.
And the fourth is legislation.
And the final fifth
is to educate many people about the space debris problem,
which I think is the most important step.
To tackle this task,
we have the "Space Sweepers" team.
Sounds like the "Ghostbusters," right?
(Laughter)
To solve the space debris problem is to solve these five tasks all together.
If one of these is unaddressed, the problem will remain.
This picture shows that we -
from business managers to engineers, despite our respective fields -
share a strong passion to work together to solve this problem.
As a part of this mission,
I am working as an engineer and at the same time
as president of the production and development company based in Japan.
For about 10 years since university,
I've been involved in satellite development.
I’ve been mainly in charge of the area called "structure and heat."
What "structure" entails
is when a satellite is loaded on a rocket and lifted off,
the body structure must be designed to withstand the load and the vibration.
That is my job.
And what "heat" entails
is in space, there are areas the sunlight reaches and other areas it doesn't.
The gap is 100 degrees or more.
Even under such a harsh thermal environment,
in order for the devices and sensors in satellites to work properly,
satellites must be designed to stay at reasonable temperatures.
I had to account for this in the design.
What originally attracted my curiosity to satellites?
It was during my university years
when I got to learn
the astonishing versatility of satellites depending on ideas.
Nowadays, interestingly, there are even some businesses
which try to use satellites for entertainment purposes in space.
In line with this trend,
I was offered to launch a business related to space debris
by the founder of my current company.
And that's how I got my job today.
As for the removal of space debris,
we came up with a two-step approach.
The first step is to not increase space debris.
As more and more satellites and rockets will continue to go up,
these must not become space debris themselves.
The second step is to reduce the current amount of debris
by collecting the existing debris which is orbiting around the earth.
Why did we set up these two steps?
First, because technologically
step one and step two differ in difficulty level.
So we have to improve step by step.
Secondly,
because the circumstances of satellite launches are changing.
Now, in the space industry
we can see that the concept of "constellation" is gaining traction.
It's to distribute hundreds to thousands of satellites equally among each other
to cover the whole earth in order to accomplish their shared task.
If this system becomes available,
we'll be able to connect to the internet on every square inch of the planet
and access images and various measurement data more frequently
in any regions of the earth,
which is likely to enable us to support a wide breadth of industries.
Now,
among the hundreds or thousands satellites that are operating these services,
what if one of them should be broken?
It will, of course, become space debris.
Obviously,
we will want to replace the broken satellite with a new one
so as to continue the service, right?
But what if the broken satellite cannot move?
Then we'll need to move it and collect it as debris
by using something such as a tow truck.
I'd say,
the space debris collection service
is similar to a roadside assistance service.
By collecting broken satellites on the spot,
we can keep satellites' orbits clear so that other satellites can pass safely.
Besides, space debris can stay in space for hundreds of years,
whereas by actively collecting debris we can avoid the increase in debris.
The way to clean up space debris is quite simple:
just collecting and dropping debris in the atmosphere will burn it up.
How do you think we collect it?
By sending people to collect it?
Wrong.
By sending robots to collect it?
Closer, but it sounds too much like from a robot superhero series.
(Laughter)
So that's not correct either.
The answer is we are going to collect debris with satellites.
This is our space debris removal satellite called "ELSA."
This is the flow of collecting space debris:
First, ELSA is taken to space by a rocket.
After being detached from the rocket,
the satellite moves toward its target by elaborately using the built-in sensor
until as close as tens of centimeters to it.
Then something pops out like a Jack-in-the-Box
and catches its target.
At this time, the capturing is done by using a magnet.
This magnet is no different than your common magnet.
Why do we use a magnet?
As there is no gravity in space,
just a poke will cause the target to go far away.
On the other hand, as the target is spontaneously attracted by a magnet,
the satellite needs no precise control,
which means the satellite system can be designed simple.
Our plan is after capturing space debris,
the satellite will be burned up by plunging into the atmosphere.
This is very convenient; no need to separate garbage.
They'll be all burned up.
(Laughter)
I want to see a future
like the ones depicted in space movies or animations.
Or perhaps it could be something completely different.
Thinking about one possibility or another excites me.
I imagine a lot of businesses and industries will be related to space,
and space will be more familiar and a closer place for more of us.
Until now, space development has been nation oriented,
but my ambition is to make it citizen oriented.
But before doing so, we need to clean up space.
We are working on developing a prototype of ELSA
in order to prove our technology in space.
We are planning to launch it on a Russian rocket for 2020.
Since our space debris removal project has just started,
we are sure to face tons of difficulties.
But we can't just do nothing
because the reason why the earth is surrounded by so much debris
is 100% the fault of us humans.
Our mission is to preserve space environment
for the future, long-term sustainability of space.
I'd be really happy if my talk today
has raised your awareness of the space debris problem.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)