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Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

theguardian.com

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Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#2

Post by nickserv »

A British-built weather monitoring spacecraft has been deliberately guided into the Atlantic Ocean, the first time a defunct satellite has been maneuvered to perform an assisted crash on Earth.

Aeolus, a satellite that has provided data to weather centers across Europe since 2018, was successfully helped to its final resting place by mission controllers at the European Space Agency.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#3

Post by shtumf »

Did British and Germans and the rest of ESA members salvage it from the ocean or will it stay as trash in the ocean ? So much money so much power ... yet all we can to is burn it a little in the atmosphere and let the rest fall into the ocean. Ocean is full of life... lets not forget that. Anyway the solution could be a repairable satellite or removable by some device like space shuttle... ESA has the money, scientists... so on. Space agencies should join in the effort and solve such things together if money is a problem or lack of technology.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#4

Post by Renaud »

Maybe it would be time to have a global agreement that all satellites must implement the means of "disposal re-entry" so they can be taken out of the space scrapyard and safely (as much as possible anyway) crashed to earth.

The amount of debris in space is going to be a problem that's going to be both costly to solve and very detrimental to future space systems if we continue to not do enough about it.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#5

Post by KRAKRISMOTT »

Renaud wrote: post #4

Maybe it would be time to have a global agreement that all satellites must implement the means of "disposal re-entry" so they can be taken out of the space scrapyard and safely (as much as possible anyway) crashed to earth. The amount of debris in space is going to be a problem that's going to be both costly to solve and very detrimental to future space systems if we continue to not do enough about it.

Not likely. The re entry tech is a critical component of ICBMs. Satellites are relatively easy in comparison, they are just a orbiting computer with a sophisticated radio/signaling processing stack. Most countries can build satellites, but the countries that can put them into orbit are all significant powers. I doubt major powers would be willing to transfer smaller players the technology for controlling re-entry.

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#6

Post by pmontra »

KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #5
Renaud wrote: post #4

Maybe it would be time to have a global agreement that all satellites must implement the means of "disposal re-entry" so they can be taken out of the space scrapyard and safely (as much as possible anyway) crashed to earth. The amount of debris in space is going to be a problem that's going to be both costly to solve and very detrimental to future space systems if we continue to not do enough about it.

Not likely. The re entry tech is a critical component of ICBMs. Satellites are relatively easy in comparison, they are just a orbiting computer with a sophisticated radio/signaling processing stack. Most countries can build satellites, but the countries that can put them into orbit are all significant powers. I doubt major powers would be willing to transfer smaller players the technology for controlling re-entry.

Would it be possible that whoever launches the satellite (in a major power) somehow adds to it a re-entry module, so the knowledge and sensible devices stay out of the reach of lesser powers?

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#7

Post by KRAKRISMOTT »

pmontra wrote: post #6
KRAKRISMOTT wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not likely. The re entry tech is a critical component of ICBMs. Satellites are relatively easy in comparison, they are just a orbiting computer with a sophisticated radio/signaling processing stack. Most countries can build satellites, but the countries that can put them into orbit are all significant powers. I doubt major powers would be willing to transfer smaller players the technology for controlling re-entry.

Would it be possible that whoever launches the satellite (in a major power) somehow adds to it a re-entry module, so the knowledge and sensible devices stay out of the reach of lesser powers?

It would take a lot of trust. You can basically stick a bug in there and siphon the radio data (yes there is encryption etc. but you probably don't want another actor's hardware being permanently attached to your satellite, opens up all sorts of vulnerabilities. It's close enough for nearfield attacks like EMP or explosives or even wrong sensor data).

Re: Satellite guided to assisted crash in Atlantic in world first

#9

Post by 130e13a »

shtumf wrote: post #3

Did British and Germans and the rest of ESA members salvage it from the ocean or will it stay as trash in the ocean ? So much money so much power ... yet all we can to is burn it a little in the atmosphere and let the rest fall into the ocean. Ocean is full of life... lets not forget that. Anyway the solution could be a repairable satellite or removable by some device like space shuttle... ESA has the money, scientis…

the total volume of all oceans is roughly 1.335 bn km^3. the volums of this sattelite is ~6.612m^3, which is about 4.952*10^-16 % of the total ocean volume.

i think it will be fine.

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