As the space around Earth becomes increasingly littered with man-made debris, scientists are stepping up efforts to preserve satellites in real time.
The latest of these efforts are new algorithms being developed at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to automatically track and protect spacecraft from crashing into satellites. asteroids inside cislunar space — The region between the Earth and moonIt is under the gravitational influence of both celestial bodies.
Tracking and predicting the orbits of satellites, rocket stages and asteroids is a challenging task because cislunar space is so vast, scientists say.
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Current infrastructure “is not equipped to provide the coverage needed in cislunar space,” said Tarek Elgohary, associate professor of aerospace engineering. UCF declaration. “Fast and accurate solutions are needed to improve forecasts and quantify uncertainties.” [space domain awareness] Information in the absence of continuous coverage.”
New algorithms are being designed to autonomously track objects and predict collisions. low earth orbit (LEO) is expected to become increasingly crowded over the next decade. The same tools, whose development was largely funded by the Virginia-based Air Force Office of Scientific Research, could also be used to track ships at sea, predict their paths and “detect suspicious behavior in real time,” Elgohary said.
“The space and maritime domains share many similarities in terms of the lack of continuous coverage of spacecraft or ships, the large size of the search area, and the need for the ability to predict maneuvers,” Elgohary said in the statement. said. “Maritime domain awareness may require shorter timescales, but with the expansion of space missions, space domain awareness operations have been reduced from weeks and days to hours and minutes.”
24-7 rush hour in space
Last year, the number of satellites orbiting our planet increased by nearly 3,000; 15% more than in 2022, according to one study. report It was released in April by Slingshot Aerospace. Slingshot’s chief executive, Melissa Quinn, said 3,000 of the total satellites in orbit, of more than 12,500, were inactive and “taking up valuable space”. newsletter.
Although the vast majority of those who are inactive satellites Those retiring to “graveyard orbits” at the end of their lives, the average distance between orbiting satellites shrank last year due to an increase in satellite launches, and this trend is expected to continue as new spacecraft continue to proliferate, the report said. .
“The industry has been saying for years that space is getting more congested, but now the facts are emerging and pressure is mounting to address the increasing risk in orbit,” said Quinn. “With LEO becoming ever more crowded, there is a real risk to satellites that provide valuable services such as internet, weather forecasting and land use tracking.”
“This highlights a critical need to work together to protect daily life.” Soil,” he added.
Experts have been sounding alarm bells about the harmful effects of growth for years. space junk population. For example, in October last year, researchers analyzed applications to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a United Nations agency responsible for allocating space in orbit for satellite use. to create It has been proposed to send more than 1 million satellites to LEO.
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“If even a fraction of these millions of satellites were actually launched, national and international rules would be needed to address associated sustainability challenges, such as collision risks. light pollution and reentry risks,” said Andrew Falle, a researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Outer Space Institute and lead author of the new study. he told Space.com In that case.
And a NASA report this month concluded Reducing the timeline for deorbiting obsolete spacecraft to less than five years has proven to be one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce debris in Earth orbit. The report was based on a simulation of how space debris evolves over 30 years and the financial costs satellite operators incur due to maneuvers to avoid end-of-mission collisions with other satellites or debris. It also found that just-in-time collision avoidance, which moves debris away from the collision path and lifts centimeter-sized debris from orbit, “can yield benefits of 300 and 100 times their costs, respectively.”
Questions remain about the effects of satellite reentry on Earth. earth atmosphere. For example, last October, a group of researchers reported He said they found vaporized metal left over from satellite entries in the stratosphere, which is home to our planet’s fragile, life-supporting ozone layer.