A Russian satellite and a US satellite nearly collided in late February, and now NASA has revealed just how close the two spacecraft came to colliding, potentially resulting in a life-threatening catastrophe. There is.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said on February 28 that the two satellites, which could not be steered or controlled, were 10 meters apart in a shocking moment that “really scared” space agency experts. He said it passed at less than about 30 feet. At this week’s conference.
NASA knew in advance that the defunct Russian spy satellite Cosmos 2221 and its own Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energy Dynamics Mission (TIMED) spacecraft would orbit close to each other, and together with the Department of Defense I was monitoring the situation.
But the scientists didn’t expect the two to pass each other at such a short distance.
“It was very shocking for me personally and for everyone at NASA,” Melroy said Tuesday at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium in Colorado. According to the Telegraph.
“We recently learned that the distance between those paths is finally less than 10 meters, which is less than the distance between me and the front row,” she told a live audience.
According to former astronauts, this 10-meter distance is the only thing between normal conditions and a potentially deadly disaster.
“If the two satellites collided, debris would be created, with small pieces traveling at 10,000 miles per hour waiting to puncture another spacecraft, potentially endangering human life. “There’s a gender,” Melroy said.
“It’s a bit chilling to think that something the size of an eraser on the tip of a pencil could cause such a catastrophe, but it can happen. We all know it can happen. , I am worried about this,” she said. “TIMED was really scary.”
As space traffic increases, with new technology companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX launching thousands of satellites into Earth orbit, the potential for near misses and collisions has become a bigger problem.
More than 10,000 satellites now orbit the Earth, a fourfold increase since 2019, according to the Telegraph.
And hundreds of thousands more are coming.
An estimated 400,000 satellites worldwide have been greenlit for launch into low-Earth orbit, and an additional 16,000 defunct or decaying satellites are in orbit at the same time, causing “monumental” problems. The magazine reported that it was causing this.
“This problem is monumental. There are so many models that we can’t even agree on how much debris there is in orbit,” Melory said.
If just one dead satellite collides with another spacecraft, it could cause a catastrophic chain reaction in Earth’s crowded suborbital space, as debris from the wreckage could collide with other orbiting objects. may be triggered. This is similar to a car accident that results in a multi-vehicle pileup. In a theory known as Kessler syndrome, highways.
NASA launched its Space Sustainability Strategy on Tuesday to try to prevent such disasters by improving mapping and monitoring of all satellites and debris in Earth’s orbit.
Several private companies are also developing technology to capture dying satellites and remove them from Earth’s orbit.
“Space is busy. We’ve been tougher on ourselves, and NASA is making strides to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” Melroy said.
