KMI Space develops REACCH, a gecko-inspired space cleaner
Quick Look
- The American start-up KMI Space is developing REACCH, a device inspired by gecko pads to capture and deorber space debris.
- Successfully tested on the ISS in 2025, it should be operational at the end of 2028 according to Forbes.
- Cnes estimates the number of debris in Earth orbit at 160 million.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Since the launch of Sputnik-1 in 1957, the number of space debris in Earth orbit has continued to increase, including disabled satellites, launcher stages and fragments of various sizes, mainly due to explosions or aging materials.
According to Cnes (National Center for Space Studies), their number is around 160 million. The number of space debris, since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, in 1957, has continued to grow. In orbit around the Earth, there are operational satellites, the number of which (around 15,700) is exponential with the entry into the dance, in recent years, of private operators, at the forefront of which is Elon Musk's SpaceX.
But also “satellites at the end of their life, abandoned launcher stages or even fragments of all sizes”, explains Cnes. They come “mainly from accidental or deliberate explosions or from the aging of materials in space. » What to do with this debris? Some of them are listed (notably the 23,200 objects over 10 cm), unlike the smallest of them, which also form the overwhelming majority.
REACCH inspired by geckos
According to Forbes magazine on September 18, whose article was spotted by Géo, the American start-up KMI Space is developing a sort of “cleaner” for space pollution. This machine would be capable of moving satellites or bringing space waste back down to the Earth's atmosphere so that it can be consumed without danger. It would be operational at the end of 2028.
The system, called REACCH, is inspired by the pads of geckos and their power of adhesion to all surfaces. REACCH would use tentacular arms whose ends would have surfaces on which weightless objects would cling. A “troubleshooter for space”, explains KMI Space, whose model has already been tested on a smaller scale, with success according to Forbes, by the teams of the international space station for two hundred days, in 2025.
Our file on space
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
REACCH will be operational at the end of 2028
Likely · Within years
Open Questions
- What will be the exact cost of deploying REACCH?
- How will REACCH manage debris less than 10 cm, which represents the majority?
- What international regulations apply to space cleaning?
