ATHENS, GA — UGA engineering students are tackling the issue of space debris with a student-led project called Skyfall Space.

The project received its second grant from NASA. UGA Senior and Lead Investigator Grant Bauman compared it to water pollution. Bauman says it could be shrapnel, bits and pieces of satellites, and other broken technology just orbiting around earth.

“Just like the ocean, we tend to use the same parts of it over and over again. When you keep leaving trash there, its going to become a problem,” he said.

Bauman and lead engineer Ben Pumphrey first met in the college’s small satellite research laboratory, where they created a team.

Once the satellite is launched and finds it’s debris target, shooting out a net, similar to a casting net in fishing, it will burn up as it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Throw it out and then it cinches around what you’re targeting, and then once we have that debris captured, we deploy a parachute that’s called a drag sail behind our satellite so that we can slow down our orbit,” Bauman said.

Pumphrey said the satellite looks for ways that is small or medium sized.

“Roughly the size of a shoebox is the satellite that we’re operating with. That is about the volume that we’re expecting to capture debris on,” he added.

It then uses a tether net approach to collect it and a sail to safely deorbit, returning to earth.

Officials say it is a major issue for NASA as it can rip very expensive technology to shreds.

Bauman and Pumphrey plan to continue this project when they graduate, and are looking for the funding to do so.