Space Junk Endangering GPS, Galileo, other GNSS

by | May 19, 2023 | Blog

Image: European Space Agency

What’s New: Europe’s concern about the increasing amount of dangerous debris in space threating Galileo, GPS and other satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO).

What to Know:

  • There are MILLIONS, maybe tens of millions, of pieces of debris in orbit around the Earth.
  • Only a small fraction can be tracked.
  • Most of the debris is in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), but 19% is in MEO. That is still A LOT of debris.
  • In 2021 a Galileo satellite in MEO had to be maneuvered to avoid a piece of debris from 1989.
  • Tens of thousands of new LEO satellites are expected to be launched in the next ten years.
  • Debris striking a satellite or other debris creates even more debris which can destroy even more satellites. Such a cascade is called the Kessler Syndrome. It could make LEO unusable.
  • A Kessler event could make it unsafe or impossible to even pass through LEO to get to MEO or GEO (geosynchronous orbit). Space would no longer be accessible. 

What it Means: Essential services, like GPS, should have terrestrial compliments to supplement them or take over if necessary. Note – See definition of “essential.”

 

Galileo Program Watching Closely as Space Junk Mounts

READ HERE

 

How many satellites can we safely fit in Earth orbit?

By Tereza Pultarova

published 

“It’s going to be like an interstate highway in a rush hour in a snowstorm with everyone driving much too fast.”

Just 10 years ago, a mere thousand or so operational satellites may have orbited our planet, but there will be tens or even hundreds of thousands a decade  from now.

Experts have been sounding alarm bells for years that Earth orbit is getting a bit too crowded. So how many satellites can we actually launch to space before it gets to be too much?

Jonathan McDowell is an astrophysicist and astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who studies super-energetic phenomena in the universe such as jet-emitting black holes in galactic centers. In recent years, however, McDowell has gained prominence for his work in a completely different field of space research. In his monthly digital circular called Jonathan’s Space Report(opens in new tab), McDowell tracks the growing number of satellite launches and the ballooning number of objects in Earth orbit.

READ MORE