A California startup called TransAstra has designed a giant, inflatable “Capture Bag” that could snag both space junk and small asteroids. The idea is to launch the bag into space, then inflate it once it's near the target so that the object is gently enveloped rather than grabbed by a rigid mechanism. This flexible, soft-material approach is supposed to be more tolerant of irregular shapes, tumbling motion, and the fragile nature of many asteroids.
TransAstra has already tested a smaller, 1-meter version of the bag on the International Space Station, proving that it can deploy and hold up in microgravity. The company now plans to scale it up to a 10-meter-wide version using funding from NASA and private investors. At full size, the Capture Bag could trap significant space debris or even small house-sized asteroids. Its broader vision is to use these captured objects either for cleanup or as accessible raw materials for future space mining missions.
