Communications of the ACM
Irish Researchers Develop New Tool to Protect Earth From Space Debris
A new risk assessment tool could help protect the Earth and its inhabitants from falling spacecraft debris.
Credit: Ducros, ESA-D
In collaboration with the European Space Agency, researchers at Trinity College in Dublin have designed a risk assessment tool for the re-entry of spacecraft debris. The tool is intended to protect the Earth and its inhabitants from falling debris from obsolete and disintegrating spacecraft and satellites as they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
Trinity professor Simon Wilson says the researchers were able to more accurately calculate the potential impact points of satellite parts that do not disintegrate in dense atmosphere. "Particularly, we are now able to calculate with higher probability whether objects in dense atmosphere will burn or not," Wilson says.
He notes other details will be not be disclosed until the researchers obtain an international patent.
The U.S. Space Surveillance Network currently tracks more than 16,000 objects orbiting Earth, about 87 percent of which are debris or inactive satellites. Any satellite orbiting the Earth will eventually start to re-enter the atmosphere, parts of which may survive re-entry and strike the earth's surface.
Experts estimate the total weight of space junk currently exceeds 100,000 tons, comprising satellite fragments, rocket stages, and inactive spacecraft components that also pose a risk for manned missions.
From Astro Watch
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found