Poland can earn cosmic money by cleaning up the orbit. A problem that needs to be solved

The dozens of Starlink satellites flying into orbit, which already provide internet around the world, are also significant.

Starlink Mission

Orbital Dumpster

Right now, there are about 6,000 objects above our heads. satellites, only some of which are still operational. Soon there will be many more thanks to the mega-constellation of satellites. As part of SpaceX and the Starlink project, Elon Musk wants to launch tens of thousands of satellites that are to provide internet. And this is not the only project of this type. It is not difficult to guess that some of the launched satellites will be damaged, either during the process of reaching the target orbit or after starting work.

The oldest object that orbits the Earth is the first American satellite, Vanguard 1C. It was put into orbit in 1958, but has not been operational since 1964 - it has become space junk. And, if nothing helps it, it will be for another 200 years or so, when it re-enters the atmosphere.

Photo: NASA Vanguard 1C, since the end of the mission, has become the first space junk. It will fall in about 200 years

The biggest threat, however, is not whole satellites, but their debris, resulting from collisions or rocket tests that have already been carried out by four countries - the Soviet Union (Russia), the United States, China and India. Today, it is estimated that there are over a million potentially dangerous garbage that can threaten both satellites and, for example, the ISS. At orbital speeds, even a paint chip as small as 1 mm in diameter has the potential to damage a window on a space station.

The first serious portion of garbage in orbit was "placed" by the Americans at the beginning of the space race. As a result of the explosion of the Able Star launch vehicle, more than 300 fragments were created. Some of them have already burned up in the atmosphere, but some are still circling above our heads.

In later years, the amount of space debris increased with the testing of anti-satellite systems. The US and the Soviet Union wanted to prove that they were able to destroy space objects of their opponents. At the time when spy satellites were used in both countries, this was of great importance. By 1982, the USSR had conducted 20 successful tests of anti-satellite systems, which led to the creation of about 700 new dangerous objects in orbit. Most of it, however, has already fallen into the atmosphere.

Photo: Edward L. Cooper / WikipediaTerra 3 — an image created by American intelligence. The Soviet Union was working on laser weapons to destroy or "blind" satellites

November 15, 2021. Russia conducted another successful test of ASAT systems. The long-defunct Soviet satellite Kosmos 1408 was destroyed. for the crew of the International Space Station.

The Americans conducted similar tests. In 1985, they shot down their own one-ton spy satellite, resulting in several hundred fragments. However, due to the low orbit, all the pieces of the satellite entered the atmosphere within 10 years of the explosion.

In recent years, two events have had the greatest impact on the amount of space debris. The first of these was the test of Chinese anti-satellite weapons. On January 11, 2007, the Chinese shot down their satellite Fengyun 1C with a multi-stage rocket. The satellite orbited at an altitude of 865 km, an orbit relatively densely populated with other objects. As a result of the explosion, over 35,000 fragments with a size of at least 1 cm were created. The altitude at which the explosion occurred means that fragments of Fengyun 1C will continue to fall into the atmosphere for decades to come.

Below you can see a simulation showing how many pieces of debris were created by this event and where they are relative to the position of the International Space Station:

China's Anti-Satellite Weapon Test - Debris Orbit | Animation

The second event took place in February 2009, when the fully functional American telecommunications satellite Iridium 33 collided at an altitude of 789 km with the Russian military satellite Kosmos 2251, which was no longer operational at that time. This was the first direct collision of two artificial satellites.

The speed of both objects relative to each other was over 11 km per second. As a result of the powerful force, the satellites weighing 950 and 560 kg disintegrated into more than 1.7 thousand. identifiable fragments and many more small ones measuring less than 1 centimeter.

You can see a simulation of this collision below:

Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 Collision

Danger in space and on Earth

The growing number of both satellites and space debris leads to potential collision situations. It is enough to mention that recently, on December 25, 2019, the Polish nanosatellite BRITE2-PL Heweliusz could have collided with the rejected segment of the American Pegasus rocket. The objects missed each other by only 11 meters, at a speed exceeding 15,000 km/h. km per hour

At this point, there aren't many collisions yet. However, this is also due to the fact that modern satellites have thrusters that enable them to correct their orbits. This means that when threats are noticed earlier (these are currently detected several days in advance), it is possible to "evade" space debris.

Photo: ESAVisualization of the distribution of space debris around the Earth. Geostationary satellites are marked in red

It should be noted, however, that without the possibility of refueling the satellite in orbit (which is not currently done), the number of possible dodges is limited and after running out of fuel the object is doomed to fate.

Similar possibilities have the International Space Station, which is also within the range of a cloud of space debris. There have already been situations where the ISS had to dodge, and cosmonauts and astronauts hid in safety capsules. Many times fragments of a few or several centimeters had the Station several hundred meters away.

What does the ISS "dodge" look like from the astronaut's perspective? Quite interesting what you can see for yourself:

Space Station Reboost: The Inside Story

Mir Station was less fortunate. A small piece of space debris hit one of the station's solar panels, causing it to delaminate. As early as 1983, space debris hampered the manned STS-7 mission when a small chip of paint shattered the window of the Shuttle Challenger during orbit.

Most space junk burns up as it enters the atmosphere. However, some of them reach the Earth. Most of it ends up in the oceans, but we know of cases where rocket fragments hit hard ground. One of the first cases is Able Star fragments that fell in Cuba and ... killed a cow. In 1962, fragments of Sputnik fell on the streets of the American city of Manitowoc, and Canadians counted over 3,000. fragments of the Kosmos 954 satellite, which had a nuclear reactor on board. The radioactive fuel contaminated an area of ​​about 800 km in Canada. This took place in 1978.

Photo: US Department of EnergyOperation Morning Light - US-Canadian troops investigate contamination after finding debris from the Kosmos 954 satellite (1978)

In 1993, fragments of Delta-II rockets also fell to the ground. The case from Argentina in particular is worth noting - quite a lot of space junk there fell close to inhabited areas.

Europe wants to clean up

In view of these threats, looking at the need to "clean up" the orbit in order to be able to launch more objects to it, the European Commission has taken - independently of the European Space Agency (ESA) - actions aimed at to monitor objects in orbit and develop the ability to remove them. For this purpose, in 2014, the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking Consortium (EUSST) was established.

There were five SST founding countries — France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Great Britain. They were joined by three more — Portugal, Romania and Poland, which is actively involved in the work of the entire team.

Before 2014, only the United States was involved in the observation of space debris, analyzing its trajectories and predicting threats. The European Commission has decided to ensure autonomous observations and the provision of related services for EU countries. At the moment, it's warning about dangerous situations, informing about collisions and situations where space debris enters the atmosphere and can hit the Earth.

An animation showing how the space observation and danger warning system works can be seen below:

EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST)

The activities of the European Space Agency under the Active Debris Removal/In-Orbit Servicing (ADRIOS) program aim to develop techniques to remove space debris and service (including refueling) existing satellites. On the one hand, this would mean reducing the number of objects that are no longer suitable for use, and at the same time extending the life of the satellites, which could operate after refueling or minor repairs.

Removal of space debris is a difficult challenge, and for now work is focused only on removing the largest objects - satellites weighing hundreds of kilograms. First, it's relatively simple. Secondly, one such satellite, as history has already shown, is several thousand potential fragments.

How do I remove a satellite from orbit? There are two options - either bring it down to Earth or push it higher, out of orbit. The first scenario seems easier to achieve. For this purpose, unmanned, robotic satellites will be used, which will attach to other objects and then slow them down, which will result in deorbiting and re-entering the atmosphere in a controlled and predictable way.

Photo: Paul Fleet/ShutterstockAtmospheric reentry is a way to effectively dispose of space debris

The space debris removal sector seems to have great potential. In 2019, ESA announced its willingness to spend 120 million euros for the removal of a 100-kilogram element that helped put a research satellite into orbit in 2013. Swiss startup ClearSky earned money. It is not difficult to imagine that more entities will soon want to use similar services, including e.g. Elon Musk.

Poland gets millions

The Polish Space Agency, in cooperation with the Consortium, recently received a grant of EUR 1.8 million (about PLN 7.7 million) for conducting observations. The National Operational Center for Space Situational Awareness (SSAC-PL) established by PAK is responsible for this. As part of the operation, 13 sensor-telescopes around the world form a global sky monitoring network. Thanks to the sensors, SSAC can observe satellites in medium and geostationary orbit, analyze the collected data and transmit it to the EUSST. At the moment, the system tracks about 20,000. objects - satellites and larger space debris.

Some of the telescopes that PAK uses today to track motion in orbit were created for a slightly different purpose. In the global network there are telescopes of the Solaris program, the purpose of which was to search for distant planets. However, it turned out that they can also be used to look much closer.

Photo:projektsolaris.plOne of the automated Polish telescopes, which was created as part of the Solaris project

The market of services related to such data is constantly growing. Already, 3 companies and 2 scientific institutions are involved in the observations, and more entities are interested in cooperation. In Poland, e.g. not only scientific centers but also private companies are involved in the construction of telescopes. Cooperation in the field of space observation and cleaning may in the future result in multi-million contracts.

Meanwhile, the Polish Space Agency is already negotiating another grant, significantly exceeding the previous EUR 1.8 million. All entities from the domestic space sector can become beneficiaries of EU funds. There are even dozens of large and small companies, as well as scientific units. POLSA estimates that this is the number of entities that have the appropriate competences to develop in the direction of space cleaning and orbital engineering. Looking at the successes of Poles in the field of robotics and mechatronics, it is not difficult to imagine that this Polish robotic arm will "clean up space" in a few years.

One example of a Polish robotic arm:

Easy Robots ES5 vs. CNC machine

The budget of the Polish Space Agency itself is also growing. In 2019, it amounted to PLN 10 million, which is twice the budget from the previous year. And it can be even better, because there is a chance that in the coming years it will not be twice, but three or even four times higher. And this is money that can be easily returned, if only there are orders for "space garbage collectors", which Polish entities (probably in cooperation) will be able to carry out.

Space garbage trucks in 10 years?

Specialists predict that the first companies that will specialize in "cleaning space" will be established in 5 to 10 years. The ClearSky example - if the operation is successful - will show that this is the most likely situation. After 2030, perhaps the first fleet of "garbage trucks" will appear in space, and further development of technology will help create devices that will be able to deorbit more objects in one mission, or catch clouds of smaller debris.

We do not expect that Poland will produce and send such structures into space on its own, but the involvement of the Polish Space Agency in the framework of Space Situational Awareness and space traffic management indicates that we have opportunities to cooperate in this type of tasks. The knowledge and experience gained in this way are invaluable, bearing in mind how various industries related to space flight are developing - from telecommunications to space tourism and the future colonization of Mars. If we do not miss our chance, we may soon belong to the elite group of "space scavengers".

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The 10 most expensive space missions in history