Meet Britain's 'Space Binman'! Giant robotic claw will hunt down defunct spacecraft and drag them to a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere

There could soon be a new 'Space Binman' cleaning up the sky, as Britain prepares to launch a revolutionary satellite with a giant claw.

Officially known as the UK Active Debris Removal Programme, this specialised spacecraft will hunt down dead, defunct satellites and drag them to a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere.

The satellite is equipped with four specialised grabbing arms that can 'grapple' with tumbling satellites that have slipped into unsafe orbits.

Once captured, the dying satellites will be gently ushered out of orbit before they can break up into destructive clouds of space junk.

The initial targets are two British satellites that are now at risk of becoming space debris, but ClearSpace UK says the refuellable craft could be parked in a safe orbit and reused for later missions.

Today, the UK Space Agency signed a £61.3million contract with the satellite builders ClearSpace UK to design, build, launch and operate this new generation of spacecraft.

With a take-off planned from the SaxaVord spaceport in Shetland for 2029, this will be the very first space mission completed start to finish in the UK.

And the British public will even be given the chance to name the new satellite, with a naming competition launching this Friday.

There could soon be a new 'Space Binman' cleaning up the sky, as Britain prepares to launch a revolutionary satellite with a giant claw

Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk whizzing above our heads, with some travelling up to 17,000 miles per hour.

Ranging from entire satellites to pieces of debris the size of a grain of dust, experts are concerned that Earth's low-orbit litter problem could become a serious issue.

The big fear is what scientists call 'Kessler Syndrome', in which pieces of space debris collide and break up into even more pieces, eventually causing an unstoppable chain reaction.

Rob Atchinson, managing director of ClearSpace UK, told the Daily Mail: 'You could potentially get this ball of space debris around the Earth, making some of the orbits unusable.'

With much of our communications, internet, and navigation services now critically reliant on satellite connections, this would be a truly disastrous outcome which the UK Space Agency is anxious to avoid.

This is why the UK Active Debris Removal Programme wants to pull dead satellites out of orbit before they have a chance to become dangerous.

However, moving satellites around in space isn't as simple as towing cars around a car park, and even small errors could lead to disaster.

If the satellite approaches too fast or doesn't align itself properly with the target, even a tiny touch could knock the dead satellite into an even more chaotic trajectory.

The satellite, designed by ClearSpace UK, has four arms that can 'grapple' dead satellites and drag them out of orbit 

Since satellites aren't designed to be touched, the spacecraft has a range of grasping tools that it can use to tug them into the atmosphere where they will safely burn up 

'From the 1950s all the way forward, spacecraft have never been designed to be serviced or touched in orbit,' says Mr Atchinson.

'So we've quite literally gone after the hardest problem; how do you control a spacecraft that was never meant to be controlled externally?'

The solution is the four tentacle arms extending from the satellite's squid-like body.

Mr Atchinson says: 'The beauty of the arms is that they independently articulate, so we can grapple the most complex of shapes, take control of it safely and, importantly, do so with the minimal risk of creating any more space debris.'

Once the satellite gets close to its target, it will use a series of onboard cameras to work out its orientation to the target, before adjusting its position and making a final approach.

Since the margin for error is so small, even the slight delay from bouncing a signal to the satellite and back to Earth is too long for a human to control this process.

That means the satellite will need to use its onboard computer to autonomously find the best way of snagging its target.

Once the arms are attached, the doomed satellites will be pushed out of orbit, but Mr Atchinson says future targets could also be lifted back up to safety.

Unlike previous grappling satellites, ClearSpace's spacecraft can be reused again and again, making it the first of its kind to have this ability.

Although it has been designed to operate for five years, Mr Atchinson says that it could last for 10 or even 20.

The spacecraft uses cameras in its robotic claws (pictured) to work out its position and autonomously approach a target satellite

The new grabbing spacecraft can also be refuelled (illustrated), which means it can be 'parked' in a safe orbit and used for other missions when needed

This is also an exciting moment for the UK space industry, marking the first time a mission will be completed entirely within Britain.

The satellite is scheduled to launch from SaxaVord, the UK's first fully licenced spaceport on the Isle of Unst, using a rocket provided by Rocket Factory Augsburg.

This announcement comes shortly after the launch of the UK Space Strategy, which committed £7.8billion in funding until 2030.

The strategy also highlighted four key areas of particular focus: satellite communications, space domain awareness, in-orbit servicing and maintenance, and access to space launch services.

Space Minister Baroness Liz Lloyd told the Daily Mail that this new contract will be critical for meeting those goals.

Baroness Lloyd says: 'If we're to have a thriving satellite communications industry, we need to deal with some of these issues of sustainability.

'One of the things which we experience at the moment is a lot of congestion in space with a lot of space junk circling around which poses a lot of hazards to satellites.

'So the UK developing capabilities here is going to put us in an incredible position to provide that service, not just to UK companies but to global providers.'

The UK Space Minister, Baroness Liz Lloyd (left), signed a £61.3 million contract to launch the new spacecraft by 2029 in order to bring down two defunct satellites

However, this first mission, scheduled to end in 2032, could be just the beginning for Britain's space binmen.

Mr Atchinson says that ClearSpace UK plans to put more grabbing satellites in different, higher orbits to service a wider range of satellites.

And, when the time comes for humans to start colonising the moon, he believes it should be British companies like ClearSpace UK that take the lead.

He adds: 'This is us putting our foot forward and saying: We will lead. Because Britain does lead, and this is our nation's programme for every man, woman, and child that lives in Great Britain.'

WHAT IS SPACE JUNK? MORE THAN 170 MILLION PIECES OF DEAD SATELLITES, SPENT ROCKETS AND FLAKES OF PAINT POSE 'THREAT' TO SPACE INDUSTRY

There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called 'space junk' - left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes - in orbit alongside some US$700 billion (£555bn) of space infrastructure.

But only 27,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 16,777 mph (27,000kmh), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.

However, traditional gripping methods don't work in space, as suction cups do not function in a vacuum and temperatures are too cold for substances like tape and glue.

Grippers based around magnets are useless because most of the debris in orbit around Earth is not magnetic.

Around 500,000 pieces of human-made debris (artist's impression) currently orbit our planet, made up of disused satellites, bits of spacecraft and spent rockets

Most proposed solutions, including debris harpoons, either require or cause forceful interaction with the debris, which could push those objects in unintended, unpredictable directions.

Scientists point to two events that have badly worsened the problem of space junk.

The first was in February 2009, when an Iridium telecoms satellite and Kosmos-2251, a Russian military satellite, accidentally collided.

The second was in January 2007, when China tested an anti-satellite weapon on an old Fengyun weather satellite.

Experts also pointed to two sites that have become worryingly cluttered.

One is low Earth orbit which is used by satnav satellites, the ISS, China's manned missions and the Hubble telescope, among others.

The other is in geostationary orbit, and is used by communications, weather and surveillance satellites that must maintain a fixed position relative to Earth.