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the European Space Agency had to move one of its satellites today to protect it from clashes with a SpaceX Starlink Satellite, the space agency comes announced on Twitter.
A first: ESA said it was the first time it had to perform a "collision avoidance maneuver" to prevent one of its satellites from crashing against a "mega-constellation" satellite. Specifically, he had to pull the Aeolus satellite thrusters to increase his altitude in order to fly over a SpaceX Starlink satellite.
Aeolus, a science satellite launched in August 2018 to improve weather forecasts, began sending back data shortly after the collision, showing that he had managed to avoid a collision. ESA has stated that it is rare that it should avoid active satellites: most of these maneuvers are to avoid debris. Aeolus orbits considerably lower than the current height of the Starlink constellation, so it is possible that the SpaceX satellite he had to dodge has been ducked. one of the three that SpaceX is in orbit after losing contact with them.
Subtle excavation: It is difficult not to interpret the information as a criticism of SpaceX's plans to launch 12,000 satellites to provide broadband Internet connections. Other companies, like Telesat, OneWeb and LeoSat, have similar plans. SpaceX started by launching 60 satellites in may 2019but he plans to rapidly increase the numbers in the coming months.
Space debris: ESA is far from alone in its concerns. Space debris experts warn that these kinds of "mega constellations" of satellites can potentially cause much more serious and lasting problems than more eye-catching stunts like India's anti-satellite missile test. It is currently very rare to have to dodge active satellites, ESA said, but we can expect to see several hundred collision warnings every week.
A potential solution: Current manual collision avoidance processes will simply not work in the era of mega-constellations. There will be too many people to watch. As a result, ESA is preparing to automate This process uses artificial intelligence systems, which evaluate potential collisions and move satellites away. Until these are operational, we rely on human observation and intervention.
Read more: How to make war in space (and get it like that)
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