NanoAvionics MP42 satellite tv for pc survives affect 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 affect created a 6 mm gap, roughly the dimensions of a chickpea, in one among 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 affect due to a picture taken by its onboard selfie digital camera in October of 2024. It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely when the affect occurred as a result of MP42’s final selfie was taken a yr and a half in the past, in April of 2023.
Whether or not this affect was from a micrometeoroid or a chunk of area particles, the collision highlights the necessity for accountable area operations in orbit and makes us replicate on satellite tv for pc resilience towards these kind of occasions.
How A lot House Particles Is There In Orbit?
In the present day, 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 at the moment 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 response to knowledge from NASA’s Lengthy Period Publicity Facility (LDEF), launched in 1984, small particles in orbit are widespread. Throughout its practically six-year mission, the LDEF spacecraft recorded as much as 140 important affect craters per sq. meter annually, with affect craters starting from 0.1 mm to three mm in diameter. Whereas pure micrometeoroid collisions are comparatively secure, human-made particles poses a novel problem by accumulating over time.
Regardless of these seemingly massive numbers, the Worldwide House Station (ISS), the biggest construction in orbit with the biggest 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’ve 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 chance with one other object by a number of orders of magnitude from 1.99e-4 to five.94e-8.
Nevertheless, with extra satellites coming into orbit annually, this low collision fee might 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 Position of the Zero Particles Constitution
As signatories and group members of the Zero Particles Constitution, initiated by ESA, we’re dedicated to the trade’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 objectives, with targets constructed by means of 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 come back, emphasizing each fast 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 prospects function responsibly and contribute to a safer future in area.
Methods to Decrease House Particles
We make the most of area situational consciousness platforms that use AI and machine studying to investigate area site visitors knowledge from a number of sources, offering exact collision predictions and optimized maneuver methods. This ensures we are able to act rapidly 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 doable:
+ Our satellites bear 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 as a consequence of malfunctions attributable to 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 techniques 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 House Resilience
Our current expertise with the MP42 additionally brings up the dialogue about how satellite tv for pc design can cut back the affect of area particles on total mission success.
Just a few examples could possibly be contemplating positioning delicate parts, like star trackers, throughout the satellite tv for pc body or on sides that largely face away from the satellite tv for pc’s velocity vector to cut back affect dangers.
Moreover, inspecting how mission operations might cut back payload, comparable to digital camera optics, publicity to the first circulate of area particles. NASA’s LDEF experiment we talked about earlier confirmed that spacecraft encounter particles rughly 10 instances extra steadily 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 are able to additional enhance our satellites’ resilience in orbit.
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