NanoAvionics MP42 satellite tv for pc survives impression with object in orbit
by Sarunas Kazlauskas for Kongsberg NanoAvionics
Vilnius, Lithuania (SPX) Oct 31, 2024
Our MP42 satellite tv for pc, which launched into low Earth orbit (LEO) two and a half years in the past aboard the SpaceX Transporter-4 mission, lately took an sudden hit from a small piece of area particles or micrometeoroid. The impression created a 6 mm gap, roughly the scale of a chickpea, in certainly one of its photo voltaic panels.
Regardless of this harm, the satellite tv for pc continued performing its mission with out interruption, and we solely found the impression because of a picture taken by its onboard selfie digicam in October of 2024. It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely when the impression occurred as a result of MP42’s final selfie was taken a 12 months and a half in the past, in April of 2023.
Whether or not this impression was from a micrometeoroid or a bit of area particles, the collision highlights the necessity for accountable area operations in orbit and makes us replicate on satellite tv for pc resilience in opposition to some of these occasions.
How A lot Area Particles Is There In Orbit?
At this time, practically 3 million kg of synthetic objects orbit inside 2000 km of Earth, together with lively and inactive satellites and rocket phases. A smaller quantity of mass, about 60000 kg, is within the remaining 9000 objects presently being tracked by area surveillance sensors. Comparatively, solely a complete of 200 kg of meteoroid mass is current inside 2000 km of Earth’s floor at any given second.
In keeping with information from NASA’s Lengthy Period Publicity Facility (LDEF), launched in 1984, small particles in orbit are frequent. Throughout its practically six-year mission, the LDEF spacecraft recorded as much as 140 vital impression craters per sq. meter every year, with impression craters starting from 0.1 mm to three mm in diameter. Whereas pure micrometeoroid collisions are comparatively steady, human-made particles poses a novel problem by accumulating over time.
Regardless of these seemingly giant numbers, the Worldwide Area Station (ISS), the most important construction in orbit with the most important security space of any spacecraft, which spans 4 by 50 by 50 kilometers (2.5 by 30 by 30 miles), has solely carried out 32 collision avoidance maneuvers to dodge area particles in 23 years between 1999 and 2022.
In our personal expertise, regardless of launching practically 50 satellites over greater than a decade, we now have solely needed to carry out a handful of collision avoidance maneuvers. Most lately, in 2024, our mission operators executed a sequence of three firings utilizing the satellite tv for pc’s electrical propulsion system, which lowered our buyer’s collision likelihood with one other object by a number of orders of magnitude from 1.99e-4 to five.94e-8.
Nonetheless, with extra satellites coming into orbit every year, this low collision fee could not final if satellite tv for pc producers and operators don’t take motion to cut back the quantity of generated particles as we speak.
The Function of the Zero Particles Constitution
As signatories and neighborhood members of the Zero Particles Constitution, initiated by ESA, we’re dedicated to the business’s formidable aim of reaching zero particles by 2030. This Constitution is a worldwide initiative that, as of the time of writing, brings collectively greater than 100 organizations worldwide to set measurable particles discount targets, with targets constructed via open collaboration.
The Constitution represents a shared imaginative and prescient for sustainable area operations, setting each high-level rules and technical targets to information area security efforts for years to return, emphasizing each instant and long-term measures.
By becoming a member of this initiative, we’re serving to to make sure that NanoAvionics’ satellites and people from our clients function responsibly and contribute to a safer future in area.
Methods to Decrease Area Particles
We make the most of area situational consciousness platforms that use AI and machine studying to research area visitors information from a number of sources, offering exact collision predictions and optimized maneuver methods. This ensures we will act shortly if any of our satellites are in danger. Along with collision avoidance, we take a number of different steps to maintain our orbits as clear as potential:
+ Our satellites endure rigorous whole ionizing dose (TID), heavy ion, and proton beam radiation testing to make sure they function reliably and do not turn out to be particles on account of malfunctions brought on by radiation.
+ We use clear launch mechanisms, comparable to burn wires and frangible bolts, for deploying photo voltaic panels, antennas, and different parts to keep away from producing particles.
+ For satellites with mission lifetimes longer than 5 years, we equip them with propulsion programs for managed deorbiting, decreasing long-term particles.
+ A few of the buyer missions we enabled contribute to monitoring and eradicating particles, actively serving to to create space safer for all customers.
Enhancing Satellite tv for pc Design for Area Resilience
Our latest expertise with the MP42 additionally brings up the dialogue about how satellite tv for pc design can scale back the impression of area particles on general mission success.
Just a few examples might be contemplating positioning delicate parts, like star trackers, throughout the satellite tv for pc body or on sides that principally face away from the satellite tv for pc’s velocity vector to cut back impression dangers.
Moreover, inspecting how mission operations might scale back payload, comparable to digicam optics, publicity to the first stream of area particles. NASA’s LDEF experiment we talked about earlier confirmed that spacecraft encounter particles rughly 10 occasions extra incessantly on the facet that’s uncovered to the satellite tv for pc’s velocity vector.
By adjusting satellite tv for pc designs and ideas of operation (CONOPS) to guard weak parts, we will additional enhance our satellites’ resilience in orbit.
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