TransAstra Develops Inflatable ‘Capture Bag’ to tackle Space Debris and Enable Asteroid Mining
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – TransAstra Corporation is developing a novel solution to address the growing problem of space debris and unlock the potential of asteroid mining: a large, inflatable capture bag. The technology, recently gaining traction with NASA funding, aims to provide a cost-effective and versatile method for securing objects in orbit, irrespective of their shape or rotation.
The increasing amount of space debris – defunct satellites, rocket fragments, and other remnants of space activity - poses a important threat to operational spacecraft. Together, the prospect of extracting valuable resources from asteroids is gaining momentum. transastra’s capture bag offers a potential solution for both challenges.
Unlike complex robotic systems, the capture bag is designed for simplicity and robustness. “The same capture bag can be used to capture objects of different shapes, as long as the bag is big enough,” explained TransAstra’s Tomas Sercel. While initial costs are projected to be in the millions of dollars per bag, the company anticipates significant cost reductions with scaled production, making it competitive with more sophisticated methods.
Eleonora Botta, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, highlighted the bag’s versatility.”this versatility is valuable for asteroid capture and even more so for managing space debris,” she said. A key engineering hurdle will be deploying and scaling the large, flexible structure in the harsh environment of space, but TransAstra has recently secured funding from NASA to address this challenge.
The technology builds upon TransAstra’s work in asteroid detection and tracking, utilizing the Sutter telescope to identify and monitor small asteroids. John Crassidis,a professor of mechanical engineering at the University at Buffalo who works with NASA and the US Air Force,noted the innovation. “If it effectively works, then it’ll really open the doors for asteroid mining, as there are many small ones out there that we can’t see right now,” he said.The company aims to demonstrate the feasibility of its approach by 2028, a timeline Crassidis considers enterprising but hopeful.
