Varun Ahlawat
New Delhi, India
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http://doi.org/10.37648/ijrst.v12i04.004
Half of the risk to any satellite is from debris collision. The main body of the satellite, housing the main electronics is encapsulated by bulletproof outer layers but most satellites include solar panels as the only energy source and they cannot be covered with multiple kevlar layers or any safety material. As space junk keeps on increasing, we seek to mitigate the tragedies related to it. Every collision in turn creates many new space junk particles which drives a positive feedback chain reaction, which could ultimately lead to a phenomenon known as “Kessler Syndrome”[1], which can render whole space unusable altogether. Several private companies like “LEO-Space” and government agencies are working to help solve this issue, yet some countries perform anti-satellite operations for military purposes each of which creates more than tens of thousands of pieces greater than 0.5 centimetres (that cannot be stopped by layers of protective material) traveling at relative speeds of up to 12km/sec on an average(which usually stay in their orbits for more than 100 years, depending on their altitudes and orbit). China (in 2007), the USA (in 2009), India (in 2019), and Russia (in 2021) have performed these so-called “tests” in the orbits of the altitude of the international space station creating countless debris of various sizes that would stay as a threat in most used orbit i.e. LEO(roughly 160km to 2000km above the earth’s surface).
Keywords: Collision Avoidance; Solar Array Satellite; Space Debris
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