Lazarus
Retired Moderator
- My Satellite Setup
- 80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
- My Location
- North York Moors
For those who don't belong to the Institution of Electrical Engineers (Now, sadly, known as the Institution of Engineering & Technology), there was an interesting article in the latest edition of the E&T Magazine regarding Satellite Control ............. or rather loss of Control:
Whilst the principle concern is with low-Earth orbit stuff, somebody has, inevitably, generated a "Syndrome".
The Kessler Syndrome describes potential disaster resulting from a chain of events triggered by something like the near miss when a spent Chinese Rocket almost collided with a European Satellite or the reality of the actual collision between an Iridium Satellite and a deactivated Russian Cosmos Spacecraft which resulted in debris clouds.
Kessler postulates that as more and more Satellites are launched and orbits get yet more congested, further collisions are inevitable and the debris may trigger "collisional cascading" (Dominoes?) where secondary collisions would act like a chain reaction to create a dense belt of debris around the Earth.
Some Experts believe Kessler is being conservative and that the congestion is already at a hazardous level.
It is further mooted that ultimately even Geostationary Orbital stuff could be affected.
To be frank, it seems to me that whilst a collision in GEO would be a disaster for Telecoms, the presence of a critical mass of debris lower down would also be problematic in terms of attenuating/scattering etc. of signals from further out.
And then there is the risk of impact from "natural" objects whizzing through space - Apparently a 1cm sugar cube sized object travelling at 7.5km per second could easily render a Satellite inoperative: Current technology cannot track any object smaller than 5-10cm!
Interesting times.
Whilst the principle concern is with low-Earth orbit stuff, somebody has, inevitably, generated a "Syndrome".
The Kessler Syndrome describes potential disaster resulting from a chain of events triggered by something like the near miss when a spent Chinese Rocket almost collided with a European Satellite or the reality of the actual collision between an Iridium Satellite and a deactivated Russian Cosmos Spacecraft which resulted in debris clouds.
Kessler postulates that as more and more Satellites are launched and orbits get yet more congested, further collisions are inevitable and the debris may trigger "collisional cascading" (Dominoes?) where secondary collisions would act like a chain reaction to create a dense belt of debris around the Earth.
Some Experts believe Kessler is being conservative and that the congestion is already at a hazardous level.
It is further mooted that ultimately even Geostationary Orbital stuff could be affected.
To be frank, it seems to me that whilst a collision in GEO would be a disaster for Telecoms, the presence of a critical mass of debris lower down would also be problematic in terms of attenuating/scattering etc. of signals from further out.
And then there is the risk of impact from "natural" objects whizzing through space - Apparently a 1cm sugar cube sized object travelling at 7.5km per second could easily render a Satellite inoperative: Current technology cannot track any object smaller than 5-10cm!
Interesting times.
