Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

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PHXPhlyer
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Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#1 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:30 pm

This collision avoidance tool could cut the risk of in-orbit crashes

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/c ... s-rcna1655

A new collision avoidance platform that helps space companies keep tabs on their satellites and surroundings could cut the risk of crashes in orbit that generate harmful space junk.

Slingshot Aerospace, a startup based in Austin, Texas, and El Segundo, California, announced Thursday the launch of the communications platform that will allow satellite operators to assess the location of spacecraft in their fleet and coordinate any maneuvers that may be necessary to dodge objects nearby.

The technology is designed to address one of the most pressing issues facing spacecraft operators in low-Earth orbit, as the area around the planet has become increasingly crowded with satellite systems for telecommunications, GPS and other functions.

The platform, called Slingshot Beacon, aims to reduce the risk of collisions in low-Earth orbit, said Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and CEO of Slingshot Aerospace. The company's pilot program includes the United Kingdom-based communications company OneWeb, the data and analytics firm Spire Global, and several other operators, accounting for 53 percent of satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit, she added.

Collision avoidance will be an essential component of the growing private space industry, particularly as an estimated 115,000 satellites are expected to be in operation in low-Earth orbit by 2030. This is in addition to more than 27,000 pieces of space junk — ranging from defunct satellites to spent rocket parts to wayward bits of debris — that are already tracked by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Several different agencies, including NASA and the Defense Department, track orbital debris but Slingshot Aerospace is hoping to make it easier for companies to communicate about collision risks and avoid potentially catastrophic situations in orbit.

"We've created a new Wild West and it didn't have to be this way," Stricklan said. "We have to keep these orbits sustainable because the entire world is dependent on space."

Slingshot Beacon is designed to help companies resolve issues in orbit, notify other satellite operators of planned maneuvers and mitigate future risks. Stricklan said she hopes the tool will invite greater collaboration among companies and among various nations.

"This allows us to reduce uncertainty and communicate across borders, across companies and across silos that exist today," she said.

The mounting space junk problem was highlighted recently, after an object crashed into the International Space Station and damaged the orbiting lab’s robotic arm. The incident, found during a routine inspection May 12, demonstrated the growing threat posed by orbital debris and the need for greater situational awareness in orbit.

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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#2 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Wed Aug 18, 2021 7:14 pm

The tool is definitely becoming a necessity...
China’s military satellite Yunhai 1-02 was mysteriously damaged on 18 March 2021, but scientists now know the cause of the issue was a piece of space debris.

The US Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron (18SPCS) said that analysis was “ongoing” on the 21 associated pieces that were broken off the satellite, which originally launched in September 2019. It was speculated that part of the craft could have exploded, but it is now known it came from the Zenit-2 rocket

The Zenit-2 rocket launched a Tselina-2 electronic spy satellite in September 1996 and, said astronomer Jonathan McDowell at the Centre for Astrophysics on Twitter, after noticing the Space-Track website updated a note to the object: “Collided with satellite”.

The debris only has one set of orbital datum from 16 March 2021, which makes the “obvious candidate” to have hit the Yunhai 1-02 satellite.

“A quick analysis of the TLEs show that Yunhai 1-02 (44547) and [the debris object] passed within 1 km of each other (so within the uncertainty of the TLEs) at 0741 UTC Mar 18, exactly when 18SPCS reports Yunhai broke up”, Dr McDowell tweeted, adding that this “looks to be the first major confirmed orbital collision in a decade.”

The Yunhai satellite remains under control and can still adjust its orbit and remains able to send orbital signals, so the collision did not destroy it, but the news raises concerns about the build-up of detritus around the planet.

A month after the collision, in April 2021, it was reported that a SpaceX satellite came within 60 meters of a OneWeb craft, with issues over the manoeuvrability of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s crafts.

“Co-ordination is the issue. It is not sufficient to say ‘I’ve got an automated system’, because the other guy may not have and won’t understand what yours is trying to do”, Chris McLaughlin, OneWeb’s government affairs chief, said.

However, SpaceX later claimed this was not the case – stating that “the probability of collision never exceeded the threshold for a manoeuvre, and the satellites would not have collided even if no manoeuvre had been conducted”.

The worst-case scenario from a collision of space debris is a domino effect envisioned by Nasa scientist Donald Kessler in 1978. It warned that broken material striking other crafts could could create an impenetrable layer of debris that would make terrestrial space launches impossible.

With more companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb, and Blue Origin launching crafts outside of Earth’s atmosphere, as well as others from nations like China, the lack of government regulation means that the risk of collision will increase

More mega constellations could see the number LEO satellite increase by a factor of 100 fold to nearly 100,000 satellites orbiting the Earth by 2030, Peter Hadinger and Mark Dickinson, the Chief Technology Officer and Head of Satellite Operations at British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat, told The Independent.


If two pieces were to collide, the average impact speed would be approximately 36,000 km per hour – seven times faster than a speeding bullet.

“The parallels with climate change are clear, and as a space community we should learn the lessons that proactive and early management is required ensuring we don’t wait until the damage is done”, they added.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... ml?r=82063
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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#3 Post by Boac » Mon Nov 15, 2021 9:13 pm

....and now Russia is reported to have 'destroyed' an old satellite in orbit as part of a test of a weapon and the debris is going everywhere. Precautionary evacuation procedures on the ISS.

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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#4 Post by llondel » Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:38 am

The acronym is unfortunate but probably accurately describes the situation. The film Gravity is edging closer to being a prophetic documentary.

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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#5 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Tue Nov 16, 2021 4:51 am

Sheer stupidity by the Russians in this case as others here imply...
The boss of US space agency NASA has slammed Russia for the “reckless and dangerous” anti-missile test that forced astronauts onboard the international Space Station to seek shelter.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson condemned the surprise weapons test that left a dangerous cloud of space debris in its wake.

“Earlier today, due to the debris generated by the destructive Russian Anti-Satellite (ASAT) test, ISS astronauts and cosmonauts undertook emergency procedures for safety,” said Mr Nelson, a former senator from Florida.

“Like Secretary Blinken, I’m outraged by this irresponsible and destabilizing action. With its long and storied history in human spaceflight, it is unthinkable that Russia would endanger not only the American and international partner astronauts on the ISS, but also their own cosmonauts.

“Their actions are reckless and dangerous, threatening as well the Chinese space station and the taikonauts on board.”

The State Department confirmed that the Russian weapons test had intentionally destroyed a Soviet-era satellite.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-styl ... 58262.html

On a less serious note the name Blinken has brought out the child in me, again! =))
ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENSPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.
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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#6 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Dec 27, 2021 3:50 pm

Chinese citizens slam Musk online after space station near-misses

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/chin ... -rcna10055

Chinese citizens lashed out online against billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space ambitions on Monday after China complained that its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Musk’s Starlink program.

The satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company, had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station on July 1 and Oct. 21, according to a document submitted by China earlier this month to the U.N.’s space agency.

“For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control,” China said in a document published on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

The complaints have not been independently verified. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a post on China’s Twitter-like Weibo microblogging platform on Monday, one user said Starlink’s satellites were “just a pile of space junk,” while another described them as “American space warfare weapons.”

With nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris believed to be orbiting the planet, scientists have urged governments to share data to reduce the risk of catastrophic space collisions.

SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and is planning more.

“The risks of Starlink are being gradually exposed, the whole human race will pay for their business activities,” a user posting under the name Chen Haiying said on Weibo.

U.S. space agency NASA was forced to abruptly call off a spacewalk at the end of November, citing risks posed by space debris. Musk tweeted in response that some Starlink satellite orbits had been adjusted to reduce the possibility of collisions.

China began constructing the space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the largest of its three modules. The station is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 after four crewed missions.

Musk has become a well-known figure in China, though Tesla’s electric-vehicle business has come under growing scrutiny from regulators, especially after a customer climbed on top of a Tesla car at the Shanghai auto show in April to protest against poor customer service.

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It's getting busy up there! More detail.

#7 Post by Boac » Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:53 pm

A pair of dangerously close space encounters is adding to tensions between the U.S. and China, while underscoring the potential peril to astronauts as satellite constellations and debris proliferate in orbit.

Two SpaceX satellites had near misses with China’s space station earlier this year — one of them within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) — in the latest sign of dangerous overcrowding in low earth orbit.

In both instances, the orbiting lab made evasive maneuvers to avoid the Starlink satellites operated by Elon Musk’s space venture. The margin for a near-miss in October could have been as little as a few hundred meters if the astronauts on board the space station hadn’t shifted to a different altitude, according to data compiled by astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell.

The close encounters prompted the Chinese government to criticize SpaceX in a Dec. 6 memo to a United Nations committee that oversees operations in space. China’s complaint could prompt global action on managing congestion in space.

China’s memo cites Starlink-1095, which had operated at an average altitude of 555 kilometers earlier this year, before descending to 382 kilometers and having a “close encounter” with the China Space Station on July 1. An incident with a separate Starlink satellite occurred Oct. 21.

The Chinese government alerted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Dec. 3, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday at a press briefing in Beijing. He contended that the U.S. isn’t meeting its obligations under the Outer Space Treaty. The incidents endangered the station’s operators, he said.

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Re: Satellite Collision Avoidance Tool

#8 Post by llondel » Sat Jan 08, 2022 5:40 pm

I'm on the side of the Chinese in this one, The proliferation of kinetic energy weapons in low Earth orbit is getting ridiculous.

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