AI Is Assisting the World’s First Space Junk Cleanup Mission

The world’s first organized space junk cleanup, bankrolled by the European Space Agency and powered by AI, is on track for a 2025 launch. The mission was dubbed ClearSpace-1, after the Swiss startup that has been developing the tech since last December.

The target: a ~220-pound piece of a Vega rocket called Vespa, which has been careening around Earth’s atmosphere since Macklemore first topped the charts.

The game plan: ClearSpace is building a spacecraft outfitted with four robotic arms. After an AI-powered camera locates the chunk of junk, the arms will drag it into the atmosphere and burn it up.

The issue: No one’s seen Vespa in seven years, making it tougher for ClearSpace’s deep learning algos to recognize. They’ll be trained on synthetic images and taught to estimate its new position in space.

In the space junkyard, there’s an estimated 3,000 dead satellites and 34,000 pieces of significantly sized debris. If the ClearSpace-1 cleanup is successful, it’ll pave the way for more AI-powered, debris-removal missions—meaning a safer space for satellites, spacecraft, and anything else we put into orbit.