Browsing by Author "Nizza, Tomás"

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    Space Debris: A Robotic Mission to Clean the Earth's Orbit
    (Inglés II. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Paraná, 2025-11) Nizza, Tomás; Pereyra, Agustín; Reinante, Lautaro
    Abstract— In recent decades, the accumulation of space debris has become a growing concern for the scientific and aerospace communities. Since the beginning of the space era in 1957, rockets, spaceships and satellites have been launched into space. However, the issue of what to do with them at the end of their useful life has not been thoroughly discussed. To address this issue, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #12, “responsible production and consumption”, aims to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns and to cut all waste by 2030, yet with five years to go, there still are many decisions to make. This target is closely related to the problem addressed in this paper since, according to studies carried out at the end of 2017, there are 8,135 tons in Earth's orbit, making it necessary to analyze solutions to deal with the waste produced by space activities. Bearing SDG #12 in mind, the proposed solution is to detect and collect pieces of space debris using a spacecraft with four robotic arms. Thus, this paper analyzes this robotic mission to solve the problem that continues to grow day. It aims to study the effects of space debris on the Earth's atmosphere and the planet’s longevity, as well as to provide an overview of the proposed solution. Furthermore, it describes the evolution of the debris problem, its impact on future missions, and the proposed detection and collection methods, seeking to raise awareness and inspire collaboration on sustainable technological solutions.