Congested thermosphere

On October 16th, 2020, engineers and scientist eagerly waited to see if the Soviet Parus satellite
[launched in 1989] and the Chinese rocket booster [launched in 2009] will collide. Neither of them had
any propulsion systems onboard, so there was no way to steer them away from each other 1. All the
engineers could do was watch and hope that it will only be a close call. If both objects were to collide,
there would have been a considerable probability that the debris from the impact will go on and cause
more collisions and therefore lead to even more collisions. In a domino type situation known as the
Kessler syndrome. Luckily this did not happen, the two objects zoomed past each other at speeds up to
52,950 km/h. To truly understand why such a crash would have been so dangerous, you firstly need to
have a brief understanding of the history of rocket launches and satellites.

In 1957, Russian engineers launched the first man-made object into space2. Sputnik 1 dawned the
beginning of the space age and humanity’s quest to conquer Earth orbit. From then we launched over
6,010 rockets and put 10,620 satellites into Earth orbit; 6,210 of which are still in space, but only 3,300
are still functioning3. Many of these defunct satellites pose a threat to functioning ones. Nowadays,
when a satellite has completed its mission the onboard propulsion systems are used to lower the altitude
of the spacecraft where it succumbs to Earth’s gravity and burns up in the upper atmosphere.
Unfortunately, these old and defunct satellites, either do not have any fuel left or they don’t even have
a propulsion system onboard, therefore there is no way to stop two non-functioning satellites from
colliding. An example of this was the collision in the February of 2009 between the operational
American communication satellite, Iridium-3, and the defunct Russian military satellite, Kosmos-2251.
The devastating impact vapourised both satellites and created over 2,300 trackable fragments, some of
which have since re-entered and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere4.

Collisions between two satellites are not only the source of space junk. Explosions play a major role in
the production of space debris. There are two types of explosions: intentional and unintentional
explosions. For instance, in 2007 the Chinese military carried out a test of their anti-satellite missile;
with the intentional destruction of their FengYun-1C satellite. This explosion not only doubled the
amount of debris at an altitude of 800km but also led to a 30% increase in total debris in space at the
time; most of which have now re-entered our atmosphere5. This was one of two anti-satellite tests
carried out by China and India respectively. Occasionally we also see spent upper stages and satellites
explode randomly. This happens because as objects spend a long time in the harsh environment of space
some their materials and mechanical integrity degrade, therefore leading to leftover fuel or fuel storage
sources from completed missions to mix and result in self ignitions. As a result, huge debris clouds are
formed that not only spread debris into low Earth orbit (LEO) but also sometimes into geostationary
orbit. According to the European Space Agency (ESA) such explosions have released over 750,000
fragments.

Furthermore, as companies gear up to launch huge mega-constellations into low Earth orbit (LEO).
Earth orbit is going to get a lot more crowded and risk of collision is going to increase exponentially.
SpaceX recently got granted a contract from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch
over 12,000 satellites to provide internet coverage all over the world. Similarly, the European company
OneWeb also received permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch 720
satellites and recently requested permission to launch 1,260 more6. Nasa scientist also predicts that an
additional 6,700 to 8,300 satellites will be launched from other sources in upcoming years.

To protect our active satellites from the plethora of debris and objects, we must actively survey Earth
orbit and monitor any potentially dangerous objects. This poses a herculean task to the various space
agencies around the world. The United States Department of Defence (DoD) has spearheaded the effort
to track objects in space by using the space surveillance network. The space surveillance network is
constituted of an array of ground telescopes dedicated to tracking objects in space, which are located at
various locations all over the world6. They have also created a catalogue that contains about 28,250
objects3 and provides information to various space agencies about potentially dangerous objects heading
towards the agency’s satellites or spacecraft. This has helped prevent countless collisions, including
those with the International Space Station (ISS). Which had to change its course 20 times in 2020 to
avoid collisions with various objects.

Apart from larger chunks of space debris that can be tracked from the surface of the Earth, there are
approximately 900000 objects from greater than 1 cm to 10 cm, and 128 million objects from greater
than 1 mm to 1 cm3. These seem small, but when travelling at 27,000km/h they can cause damage or
even render satellites unusable. Luckily, engineers have established various methods of protecting
satellites and spacecraft from the impact of such small objects. For example, the International Space
Station (ISS) uses debris shields around crew modules. The shields are composed up of two metal sheets
separated by a 10 cm gap with a fabric, similar to those used in a bulletproof vest, between the two
sheets. The outer bumper shields shatter the object so that the inner sheet can withstand the resulting
smaller sized particles7.

As we continue to launch more satellites, we need ways to protect them. One solution is to use active
retrieval methods to remove large defunct satellites that take too long to fall back to Earth. Space
agencies like the European Space Agency (ESA) or companies like Astroscale have already finished
developing and have started making plans to field-test their spacecraft. The European Space Agency
(ESA) is planning to soon launch their ClearSpace-1 mission, which will “rendezvous, capture and takes
down for re-entry the upper part of a Vespa (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) used with Europe’s
Vega launcher.”8 This is the first state lead space agency attempt to actively remove and object from
space. Other solutions have been suggested like a “space-based laser system” (Shen et al., 2014). The
laser will vaporize “debris of 1–10 cm” (Shen et al., 2014) this can help remove debris that active
removal projects like the ESA and Astroscale cannot capture, essentially reducing the risk for the ISS
and other valuable spacecraft.

Overall, I believe the best method of protecting the current and future spacecraft is to monitor debris to
avoid any more collisions and ensure to all new satellites are deorbited after their mission is completed.
It is too expensive to deploy active removal methods and lasers are not practically feasible yet.
Therefore, I think strict guidelines on future missions is the best course of action, to ensure all new
satellites are properly disposed and purposeful explosions of satellites are banned. Like anti-satellite
missile tests.

Bibliography
1
Crane, L., 2021. Two Old Spacecraft Just Avoided Catastrophically Colliding In Orbit. [online] New
Scientist. Available at: <[Link]
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2
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3
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4
ESA. 2021. About Space Debris. [online] Available at:
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ESA. 2021. The Cost Of Space Debris. [online] Available at:
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Grush, L., 2021. As Satellite Constellations Grow Larger, NASA Is Worried About Orbital Debris.
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oneweb-satellite-large-constellations-orbital-debris> [Accessed 10 January 2021].
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ESA. 2021. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. [online] Available at:
<[Link] [Accessed 10
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8
ESA. 2021. ESA Purchases World-First Debris Removal Mission From Start-Up. [online] Available
at: <[Link]
first_debris_removal_mission_from_start-up> [Accessed 10 January 2021].

Shen, S., Jin, X. and Hao, C., 2014. Cleaning space debris with a space-based laser system. Chinese
Journal of Aeronautics, 27(4), pp.805-811.