Space Intel’s Post

* Extract from an article published on 20 Oct 2024 by The Guardian: "...But the concern over debris is about more than it damaging an individual satellite or craft. Space operators are acutely aware of a danger known as the #KesslerEffect or syndrome, named after the Nasa scientist Donald J Kessler, who in 1978 along with Burton G Cour-Palais, published a theory that as the number of satellites increased, so would the #probability of collisions. As collisions increase, the more debris is produced, and the greater the risk of more collisions. At a critical mass, one collision could trigger an #unstoppable cascade of collisions, such that an entire orbit could be rendered useless. A 2022 overview paper by Viasat paints an almost apocalyptic picture: “If a tipping point is reached, all of humanity would watch helplessly as space junk multiplies uncontrollably. Without timely intervention, we risk bringing the space age to an inglorious end, and trapping humanity on Earth under a layer of its own trash for centuries, or even millennia.” It continues: “Not only an abrupt end to space exploration, but also the loss of all the benefits of space technology – including navigation, weather forecasting, climate measurements, and even satellite broadband (the intended purpose of the megaconstellations being deployed).” https://lnkd.in/gEeWGY6T —- The 𝗜𝗔𝗔 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘀 & 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 (#SDS2024), which is co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong’s Laboratory for Space Research (HKU-LSR) and EPFL Switzerland, will take place in Hong Kong from 2-4 December 2024. Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/ggCb5Mvr) ✨

* 𝗡𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 — For decades, the space sector has grappled with a colossal problem: #SpaceDebris. Imagine millions of defunct satellites, spent rocket parts, and paint flecks hurtling through Earth’s orbit at breakneck speeds—each possessing the kinetic energy of bombs, endangering valuable space assets. Until recently, we acknowledged this issue without decisive action. Then, in 2007, #China conducted anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing, destroying one of its weather satellites and creating over 3,000 additional debris pieces. Russia and the U.S. have also conducted ASAT tests, but China’s incident drew worldwide media attention. In 2019, India joined the ASAT club, and Russia continued ASAT missile testing in 2020 and 2021, adding to the cloud of space debris in low-Earth orbit — a threat to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). 𝙀𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙩 𝙙𝙮𝙣𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙘𝙨 Once predominantly occupied by Earth observation satellites, the low-Earth orbit (LEO) is evolving into a lucrative space for broadband satellite initiatives. Investors are now assessing LEO's prospective value, shifting theoretical considerations into tangible opportunities. In April 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged that the U.S. won’t conduct further destructive ASAT missile tests, aiming to establish a new norm for responsible behaviour in space. Regulatory changes followed: the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spearheaded the adoption of a “5-year rule,” stipulating that 𝗟𝗘𝗢 𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗿𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (replacing the previous guidelines of 25 years). The aim? Enhanced accountability and reduced collision risk, underscoring the importance of responsible space stewardship. #SpaceSustainability has become a significant consideration, leading to a reevaluation of in-orbit servicing and debris removal companies by potential investors. What lies ahead in this evolving landscape? Read on: https://lnkd.in/dg96Cppr) —— The August edition of 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗕𝗶𝘇 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀 on 30 August 2024 will focus on #SpaceDebris. Registration is now open. 🚀✨

* Extract from an article published on 19 Oct 2024 by The Guardian on Space debris and sustainability: "...But the concern over debris is about more than it damaging an individual satellite or craft. Space operators are acutely aware of a danger known as the #KesslerEffect or syndrome, named after the Nasa scientist Donald J Kessler, who in 1978 along with Burton G Cour-Palais, published a theory that as the number of satellites increased, so would the #probability of collisions. As collisions increase, the more debris is produced, and the greater the risk of more collisions. At a critical mass, one collision could trigger an #unstoppable cascade of collisions, such that an entire orbit could be rendered useless. A 2022 overview paper by Viasat paints an almost apocalyptic picture: “If a tipping point is reached, all of humanity would watch helplessly as space junk multiplies uncontrollably. Without timely intervention, we risk bringing the space age to an inglorious end, and trapping humanity on Earth under a layer of its own trash for centuries, or even millennia.” It continues: “Not only an abrupt end to space exploration, but also the loss of all the benefits of space technology – including navigation, weather forecasting, climate measurements, and even satellite broadband (the intended purpose of the megaconstellations being deployed).” —- 🌟 OASA is proud to be a co-organiser of the 𝗜𝗔𝗔 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗶𝘀 & 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲, which will be held at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) from 2–4 December 2024 — Link to 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲 : 👉 https://lnkd.in/gXXtQSrc)

NASA Space Flight Control Center is empty for the first time in 6 decades https://ift.tt/h3SrMZX  NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena was evacuated on January 8 and remained closed until Monday due to the Eaton Fire. The research center has not yet been damaged by the blaze. Although the emergency disrupted some data processing at JPL and, according to social media reports, severely impacted the JPL community, the Deep Space Network managed to maintain communication with all active spacecraft during the evacuation. JPL was “spared from the fire thanks to the brave dedication of our first responders. But our community has been severely impacted, with more than 150 JPL employees losing their homes and many more people being displaced,” Lori Leshin, JPL’s director, wrote in an X-faced post on Friday. A JPL Facebook administrator confirmed this grim situation in a comment on Sunday. Most employees have been asked to work from home this week, and administrators have set up a relief fund for the Caltech and JPL communities. JPL is a federally funded robotic space research laboratory operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) on behalf of NASA. It is also home to the Deep Space Network (DSN), a network of giant radio antennas used to communicate with space missions. Established in the late 1950s and early 1960s, NASA’s DSN currently maintains communications with the Voyager probes, the Mars rovers, and the Juno probe orbiting Jupiter. The Space Flight Control Center at JPL “has been operational and staffed daily since 1964,” according to NASA. According to an evacuation notice posted on the laboratory’s website on Wednesday, “JPL facilities, laboratories, and equipment are being secured and protected. Deep Space Network operations normally conducted at JPL have been moved off-site to a backup operations center.” The good news is that the DSN team kept in touch with its spacecraft throughout the evacuation, Space.com reports. “Our incredible DSN team did everything they could to ensure that not a single piece of data was lost,” said Nicola Fox, NASA deputy administrator, during the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society taking place this week in Maryland, according to Space.com. “It was a very emotional event, for the first time in 60 years, no one was in the mission control office at JPL because they had to move to the emergency center.” Unfortunately, the evacuation of the research center resulted in some disruptions in data processing, including some near real-time (NRT) data (information available shortly after it was recorded by the spacecraft), data from the Soil Moisture Active-Passive Measurement Platform (SMAP), which regularly measures surface soil conditions, and data from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), which measures atmospheric characteristics twice a day. While the fact that JPL remained unscathed is a relief to the scientific community, it remains to be seen how the...

An unidentified rocket fragment fell in a Kenyan village https://ift.tt/VEWoygK A large metal ring fell from the sky and crashed into a village in Kenya. According to preliminary estimates, the fallen space debris may have come from a rocket, and the fragments survived re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. The Kenyan Space Agency is investigating an incident involving metal fragments that fell on Mukuku village in Makueni County on Monday at 7 a.m. EST, the report said. No injuries were reported, but the incident raises concerns about the growing threat of space debris falling on populated areas. According to the Kenyan Space Agency, the metal ring is about 8 feet (2.5 meters) wide and weighs about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms). The object is believed to be a splitter ring, a component used to connect the payload to the rocket during launch, ensuring it is placed in orbit before the ring falls back to Earth. Separation rings are typically designed to burn up upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. However, this appears to have survived the heat. The type of rocket is yet to be determined. The Kenyan Space Agency secured the area and seized the metal ring, which is now in the agency’s custody for further investigation. “We wish to assure the public that the object does not pose an immediate security threat,” the Kenya Space Agency wrote. “Our experts will analyze the object, use the available database to identify the owner and inform the public about the next steps and results.” The incident in Kenya is the latest in a series of space debris falling on populated areas. In March 2023, a two-kilogram cylindrical object broke through the roof of a house in Florida. The object was identified as a piece of a massive pallet of old batteries that NASA ejected from the International Space Station in March 2021, sending it flying through the Earth’s atmosphere. The risk of space debris falling is indicative of the growth of the space industry as access to orbit becomes more affordable for space agencies and private companies. A 2022 study predicts a 10% chance of one or more casualties from falling rocket parts in the next decade. Currently, regulators lack enforcement mechanisms to properly dispose of rocket parts and inoperable spacecraft through controlled reentry, which can send space debris to remote areas. The recent incident underscores the need for stricter laws on orbital traffic to protect people and property on the ground.

[Private Space-Junk-Inspection Probe Spots Discarded Rocket In Orbit Up Close] This is how decades-old space junk drifting in Earth's orbit would look like seen from just 50 meters (164 feet) away. You are looking at the spent upper stage of a discarded Japanese rocket that launched an Earth observation satellite back in 2009. The rocket body was imaged up close on May 23 by the ADRAS-J satellite, which was designed by private Japanese company Astroscale to approach and study a non-communicative, uncontrollable piece of orbital debris. Images and data collected during these inspections record the condition of the dead satellite, including how structurally intact it is after drifting in the harsh space environment for years. The satellite does not transmit GPS signals to Earth, so by closely approaching, imaging and potentially removing it from orbit in the future, ADRAS-J proves technologies that on-orbit services can be used for things like satellite maintenance or capturing and deorbiting space debris objects, according to Astroscale. ADRAS-J, which is short for Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan, launched into orbit atop Rocket Lab's Electron rocket on Feb. 18. By April the 330-pound (150-kilogram) probe had used its onboard cameras and successfully maneuvered within a few hundred meters of its target — the upper stage of the Japanese H-2A rocket that launched the GOSAT Earth-observation satellite back in 2009. This striking photo released late April memorialized the achievement. In an update posted today (Friday, June 14), Astroscale wrote that ADRAS-J had completed a safe and controlled approach to the rocket, which spans 36 feet long by 13 feet wide (11 by 4 meters). The latest image is one of many ADRAS-J captured while holding a fixed position relative to the upper stage, the company said, adding that the mission will soon try snapping additional pictures of the target through various close approach operations. Spaceflight historian Gunther Krebs previously noted that ADRAS-J is not the first mission to capture close-up images of space junk. In 2003, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's XSS-10 satellite had photographed the used upper stage of a Delta II rocket; those tasks were less complex than ADRAS-J's. Following the successful safe and controlled approach of the dead rocket, in late April, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) chose Astroscale for the second phase of the mission, which will progress onto capturing and removing the rocket body using a robotic arm that is lighter version of the one on the International Space Station. "This next phase holds significance in addressing the space debris issue and laying the foundation for a sustainable environment for future generations," Eddie Kato, the president of Astroscale Japan, said in a previous statement. Source: https://lnkd.in/eC6K_9tB #galaxyaerosgh #space #spaceexploration #SpaceNews

No Wi-Fi in space…yet. But don’t worry, Paul Grogan is developing a sort of Earth science internet to connect satellites, sensors and sea vehicles. More than 8,000 satellites in space, thousands of sensors on ground stations and hundreds of underwater vehicles are hard at work, collecting vital information that could help us organize responses to emergency events, prevent disasters and better understand our planet. Now, Grogan, a #SCAI associate professor of computer science and industrial engineering at Arizona State University, has been awarded a grant of more than $1 million from NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration to improve the data collection and sharing capabilities of Earth-observing assets. The end goal is to empower researchers to go beyond collecting data and enable them to quickly process it and act on what it reveals. #NASA #ASUEngineering #IndustrialEngineering https://lnkd.in/ghgqytKz

India will attempt its first-ever docking in orbit late Wednesday (Jan. 8), and you'll be able to watch the action live as it happens. Twin satellites, built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will try to link up in low Earth orbit on Wednesday night, and the docking is expected to be broadcast on a free livestream that you can watch starting at 9:30 p.m. EST (0230 Jan. 9 GMT). At the time of this livestream, it will be 8:00 a.m. on Jan. 9 India Standard Time. The Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, satellites launched into space on Dec. 30 and were initially expected to dock on Jan. 6, but ISRO postponed the orbital rendezvous to allow more time for checks. "The docking process requires further validation through ground simulations based on an abort scenario identified today," ISRO officials wrote in a mission update on the social media site X at the time. India's SpaDeX mission is the country's first demonstration of the automated docking system ISRO will use to link spacecraft in orbit around Earth and the moon. The company hopes to launch its Chandrayaan-4 sample return mission to the moon's south pole by 2028, then build a space station for astronauts in orbit around the moon by 2040. Both moon projects will require automated docking technology. The Chandrayaan-4 mission must dock a sample return capsule to a craft for the trip back to Earth, while the modules of India's planned Bharatiya Antariksha Station will need docking ports for visiting crews or cargo ships. Similar technology was developed by NASA, Russia, China, Japan and the European Space Agency for their respective space station and moon missions. SpaDex will use a Chaser and Target spacecraft, each of which weighs 485 pounds (220 kilograms), to test orbital rendezvous and docking while flying 290 miles (467 kilometers) above Earth. The test "will mark India’s entry into the exclusive league of nations capable of mastering space docking," India's Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said in a statement before launch. ISRO is also testing other space station technologies on the SpaDeX mission. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle that launched the twin satellites also carried a suite of other experiments for ISRO, universities and commercial ventures on a platform called POEM-4. Among them is a small "walking" robotic arm that can crawl across a spacecraft's exterior, much like the Canadarm2 robot arm on the International Space Station. Full Article: https://lnkd.in/gzwvVaFY #ISRO #POEM4 #SpaDeX The two docking satellites of India's Space Docking Experiment mission, or SpaDex. (ISRO)

[How To Watch SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch NOAA's GOES-U Satellite On June 25] The final NOAA satellite in NOAA's GOES-R series of weather satellites, GOES-U, is set to head to space. The two-hour launch window opens at 5:16 p.m. EDT (2116 GMT) on June 25 and the mission will aim for the stars on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's storied Space Coast. If you're going to be in or around Cape Canaveral, there are many spots from which you can watch the rocket soar into the sky. Florida's Space Coast Office of Tourism has compiled a map and list of launch viewing venues including beaches, parks, and restaurants surrounding Kennedy Space Center you can camp out at. Don't want to leave the house or travel to Florida? You can watch the launch live here at Space.com thanks to NASA. Coverage begins at 9:30 a.m. EDT (1330 GMT). "Every launch is worth watching, it's something fun and exciting," Rex Engelhardt, GOES-U Mission Manager for NASA's Launch Services Program, told Space.com. "It is kind of a show and it's over quickly. With the booster return you get, it's nice — you get to stretch it out a little bit." The first launch of the series, GOES-R, was in 2016, followed by GOES-S and GOES-T in 2018 and 2022, respectively. But compared to its three predecessors in the series, GOES-U will be quite the shining star in the constellation. Not only will GOES-U have all the bells and whistles like its siblings — featuring instruments that provide state-of-the-art advanced imagery, take atmospheric measurements of Earth's weather, oceans and environment, as well as real-time mapping of total lightning activity — but GOES-U will also have improvements to each component based on what adjustments NOAA found were needed from the earlier trio. "Our five-decade partnership with NOAA has resulted in the successful operation of more than 60 satellites dedicated to weather forecasting, severe storm and hurricane prediction, and climate observations. We're very excited to complete the four satellite GOES-R series with the most capable geostationary weather satellites in our nation's history," John Gagosian, director of NASA's Joint Agency Satellite Division, said in a virtual media briefing last month. "I'm proud that NOAA and NASA have collaborated so well over the life of the GOES-R program. We are poised for a very strong finish." The successor to NOAA's GOES-R series will be the Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system, which is scheduled to launch in the early 2030s. Source: https://lnkd.in/e3_Gk4VW #galaxyaerosgh #space #spaceexploration #SpaceNews