A network of microwave-sized satellites in low-Earth orbit could also be useful in addressing our planet’s increasingly cluttered environment, in keeping with latest research.
Over 27,000 pieces of space debris are currently tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network — and a few estimates suggest greater than 170 million other, smaller pieces can’t be tracked and are thus susceptible to colliding.
So, how would more satellites on this already-crowded space help? Well, the envisioned eight satellites will carry complex science instruments to assemble data that can assist scientists accurately predict, and due to this fact prevent, debris collisions. This blueprint is printed in a mission concept released this month, which has been termed ROARS (short for Revealing Orbital and Atmospheric Responses to Solar Activity).
“The novelty of getting multiple coincident measurements from a satellite swarm will result in improved space situational awareness in a congested space environment,” Robert Watson, a senior lecturer on the University of Bath within the U.K. who is an element of the brand new mission, said in a statement.
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Scientists say the flexibility to make predictions about satellite collisions partly relies on understanding how Earth’s upper atmosphere exerts a force, or drag, on orbiting satellites. That impact is further amplified by solar activity and space weather, two parameters the brand new mission goals to raised understand. For example, in early 2022, SpaceX’s Starlink lost 40 satellites during solar storms. These storms had heated Earth’s atmosphere, causing it to expand and thus increase drag on the satellites.
To higher understand these impacts, the brand new mission, which is being funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) for $105,685 (100,000 euros), will likely be equipped with instruments akin to magnetic field sensors. Radar, laser and optical observations can even be collected amongst others to assemble the “first coordinated measurements” in low-Earth orbit, in keeping with an ESA statement.
Although various ideas for monitoring and tackling space debris have been around for a decade, investments in such concepts have begun only recently. Experts say this momentum must proceed, especially because the uncertainty of collisions in low-Earth orbit grows with every latest satellite placed there.
One such major collision occurred in 2009, when one satellite belonging to Iridium Satellite was destroyed when it collided with a Russian satellite, resulting in lots of of pieces of debris. The following such collision “is a matter of when, not if,” Don Pollacco, a professor on the University of Warwick who can also be a part of the brand new mission, said in last week’s statement. “It will be significant that we act now before it is just too late, and lots of orbits turn out to be unusable.”
The mission concept began taking shape in mid-September this 12 months and is predicted to be accomplished a 12 months from now, in keeping with the ESA statement.