An advanced remote sensing satellite designed to provide accurate data on the Earth environment, Envisat leaves the space community after 10 years of stunning images and continuous measurements that made possible more than 2500 scientific publications[1]. Launched by the European Space Agency in 2002 to ensure the continuity of data measurements with the European Remote Sensing Satellites ERS-1 and 2, [...]
Post Tagged with: “Kessler Syndrome”
Don Kessler on Envisat and the Kessler Syndrome
A drifting satellite as big as Envisat would be more than just a huge space wreck: in case of collision, given its mass, volume and shape, it might generate a cloud of smaller debris large enough to populate the orbit, initiating a self-sustaining chain-reaction of collisions and fragmentation with production of new debris. This phenomenon, known as the Kessler Syndrome, would eventually make space operations difficult or [...]
MDA, Intelsat Cancel On-Orbit Servicing Deal
MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Corporation (MDA) and Intelsat announced January 16th that they would be canceling their collaborative agreement involving MDA’s Space Infrastructure Services (SIS) project, in which MDA would develop a satellite capable of refueling and servicing other satellites already in orbit. Intelsat had agreed to invest 280 million USD to finance the inaugural mission, which would have seen [...]
Space Junk 3D Movie to Release in IMAX
Space Junk 3D will begin appearing in IMAX theaters on January 13, 2012. The 38 minute film provides a stereoscopic view of orbital debris, exploring its causes and potential solutions. The movie comes at a highly topical moment, with the Phobos Grunt probe expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere within the next few weeks rounding out a series of debris-related events that [...]
Lockheed Martin – The Space Fence
The video, produced by Lockheed Martin, talks about the “Space Fence,” a next-generation system for tracking orbital debris that’s due to begin operation in 2015. Orbital debris are a major source of concern for space faring nations: experts estimate that there currently are between 100,000 and 500,000 objects larger than a centimeter in Earth orbit, although 20,000 pieces have actually been [...]
Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft
Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft An Assessment of NASA’s Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Programs National Research Council of the National Academies Over the past 50 years, various NASA communities have contributed significantly to maturing NASA’s meteoroid and orbital debris (MMOD)1 programs to their current state. As a result of these community efforts, and to NASA’s credit, NASA’s MMOD programs and models [...]
Space Junk Problem Is More Threatening Than Ever, Report Warns
Clara Moskowitz on Space.com about an independent report on the increasing issue of orbital debris, and the consequent risk of triggering the Kessler syndrome: There is so much junk in space that collisions could start to increase exponentially, leading to a continuously growing pile of rubble in orbit, a new report warns. “Space is becoming essential to our current civilization,” Donald Kessler, chairman [...]
