Europe's Space Agency Will Destroy a Brand-New Satellite in 2027 Just To See What Happens (theverge.com) 12
The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a satellite into Earth's orbit in 2027 to watch it get wrecked as it reenters the atmosphere. From a report: The project is intended to help understand how exactly satellites break apart so that scientists can learn how to prevent the creation of more space debris. Space junk is becoming a bigger problem as we send more satellites into orbit, but there are efforts to try and address it. This mission is part of the ESA's Zero Debris Charter initiative to stop the creation of additional space debris by 2030. The mission is called the Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object (DRACO), and the insides of the satellite will collect data as the craft gets destroyed during reentry into the atmosphere. It will also contain a 40-centimeter capsule designed to survive the destruction that will transmit the collected data as the capsule moves toward the ocean.
Re:create more space junk... (Score:4, Informative)
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They seem to be worried about the junk that reaches the ground. Their plan is to try to instrument different parts of a typical satellite, like the solar panels, fuels tanks, and other components, and collect data on them at least down to 60km altitude.
Probably a good idea since we are now putting up thousands of these things, with apparently little data on what parts survive for how long, either disintegrating in the upper atmosphere (and releasing various chemicals) or reaching the ground. Operators usual
Re: create more space junk... (Score:2)
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There will not be. Some people are just dumb complainers.
Re: create more space junk... (Score:1)
Exactly what I thought, pay some other micro-satellite provider to launch the capsule and track it, you can even do this multiple times for the same budget and with different parameters, LEO satellites have about the same lifespan as the planning on this mission.
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This is not being destroyed as a "controlled" detonation, but rather as deorbit. With the amount of dead satellites and space debris on orbit, it makes sense to start to properly understand deorbit of old satellites. At the same time, Starlink should also be in a position to provide plenty of data, if they wish to share this with the larger community.
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What? (Score:2)
Wait -- they're going to launch a satellite and then let it break up on re-entry to get more data on how satellites break up on re-entry. But if a satellite is re-entering the atmosphere, and it breaks up, it won't create any "space junk" -- it'll break apart, and the parts will fall to earth, because they won't be in orbit any more.
Still doesn't explain [esa.int] what this has to do with orbital debris: "To keep Earth’s valuable orbits clean and prevent the creation of more space debris, it is important to re
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If this experiment results in new techniques to ensure spacecraft are fully destroyed on reentry, it may reduce the requirements for active deorbit control. Instead of having to design with enough delta-v for a planned deorbit into the spaceship graveyard, I could instead design a frangible spacecraft with just enough delta-v to put it in a terminal trajectory.
Precision costs mass, and (for now) mass costs money.
It's not the first experiment-during-descent that's flown. IIRC, the "How does fire behave in