Can you imagine a garbage collector in space? Well, a new research project is about to launch a spacecraft into Earth's low orbit to collect and dispose litters in space. The project is part of a cleanup drive on the increasing amount of space junk.

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) Center for Space Engineering's CleanSpace Project has been working on the growing concern on how to safely track, collect and dispose satellites that have outlasted their usefulness but aren't going to return to Earth at all. So in order to cleanup orbiting clutter, the team decided Monday to use the "Pac-Man" technique, NBC News has learned.

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The "Pac-Man" solution will use a spacecraft with a big conical net extending from the front that closes as soon as it gobbles up the satellite. Their target is a cubesat named SwissCube, only 4 inches to a side.

"The idea is to have the biggest aperture possible, to increase the chance to eat the cube while it's near the chaser," EPFL's Michel Lauria explained in a video showing the prototype.

Since Swiss space experts wanted to eliminate the threats of the existing space garbage, which put satellites and astronauts at risk for junks with speeds of up to 15,000 mph, they settled to launch the "CleanSpace One" mission. According to Engadget, the operation will be tricky since just looking for the 4-inch by 4-inch satellites is going to be a tough job.

Moreover, researchers are also establishing a high dynamic-range camera and image processing system that can spot bright reflections coming off the SwissCubes as they orbit in space, Wired noted.

Meanwhile, extra care should be taken in this project because if the net doesn't deploy, the cubes could bounce off the cleanup satellite and end up in a worse spot than before. So, exact measurements of position and speed are quite essential in this mission.

And to avoid this disaster, scientists are currently testing the visual approach algorithms on the clean-up satellite's cameras. Daily Mail reported that to be accurate, experts have to consider a variety of parameters, such as the angle of illumination of the sun, the physical data of CubeSat, the relative speed at which it is moving. They should also take into account all the uncertainties involved in the measurement and the speed of its own rotation.

As of now, the system has passed the prototype stage. Researchers are still working on further development and testing. With luck, Popular Mechanics revealed the "CleanSpace One" mission could launch in 2018.

TagsPac-Man, spacecraft, outer space, CleanSpace One, Pac-Man Spacecraft