Satellites.
It’s hard to overstate how much our modern world relies on them.
With commercial space companies making rocket launches more affordable by the day, and nanotechnology
giving us cube-sats you can hold in your hand, we are entering the golden age of satellite
technology.
But just as we gain a new benefit with each new object we place in low earth orbit, we’re
also adding to the odds of a collision.
This danger is called the Kessler Syndrome, and it was highlighted in the film Gravity.
When objects traveling at 17,500 miles per hour collide, bad things happen—mainly a
cascading effect of more and more collisions, creating more and more space debris.
Obviously, this is a threat to the crew of the International Space Station, but if it
starts to take out too many satellites, it could also significantly threaten our way
of life down here on earth.
And if it gets really out of control, it could eventually make space launches completely
impossible.
That means no more Mars missions.
Currently, there are more than 2,000 satellites orbiting the planet, and an estimated 500,000
pieces of space junk ranging in size from about a fingernail up to the size of a bowling
ball.
There’s a lot of room in space though, and the current debris cloud isn’t very dense,
but there’s already enough stuff hurtling around that the ISS has to change course once
a month as it’s crew shelters in the Soyuz reentry capsule until the threat of a collision
passes.
These lethal pieces of metal are already destroying one satellite per year, which is why this
isn’t some abstract problem of the future--humanity is facing this now.
So it’s good news then, that a team of mechanical engineers in Russia understands the urgency
of the moment, and has developed a debris prevention system that’s ready for testing.
Here’s project leader Alex Shaenko with more.
Shaenko: “While scientists all over the world are trying to solve the debris problem,
students of the university of mechanical engineering and I want to test a debris prevention system.
The project was dubbed Mayak.
It is a micro-satellite which we started to work on in 2014 and launching in summer of
2016.
Once its mission is complete, Mayak will not be wondering around in space.
It will decay and reenter the atmosphere using a special pyramid-shaped braking system.”
Bryce: This braking system is a delicate film 20 times thinner than a human hair, and it’s
coated with an even thinner layer of aluminum.
During orbit, it will unfold from within the satellite to slow it down.
It’s a common misconception that space is an airless vacuum, as there’s actually a
small amount of air for hundreds of miles above the earth.
But for a tiny satellite that’s stopped working, it would take years for this drag
to slow it down enough to enter our atmosphere and burn up.
But the Mayak aerobraking device should allow for decommissioned satellites to slow down
much more quickly, thus eliminating them as threats to add to the space debris problem.
And while deployed, the Mayak’s reflective panels will also make it the brightest star
in the sky, which will start millions of conversations around the world about the need to solve this
very problem.
It’s brightness will also allow it to be tracked so data can be gathered on how the
design of the Mayak will need to be adapted for different-sized satellites going forward.
The team has secured a spot as a secondary payload on an upcoming Russian Space Agency
launch, but to finish the project in time, they need to have a successful kickstarter
campaign now, which you can check out and contribute to through the link below.
While some people are developing improved systems to track all that space debris, others
are holding out hope for some future fix, like using lasers to de-orbit or move debris.
But that’s not the best we can do to begin solving this problem now, which is what makes
this group of unfunded enthusiasts so inspiring.
So let’s go help them help all of us.
This episode was brought to you by one of my favorite websites, lynda.
As a viewer of The Daily Conversation you are eligible for a free, 10-day trial membership
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They have thousands of high quality video courses where you can become an expert on
the engineering design software the inventors of the Mayak used to bring their idea to life,
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Until I talk to you next time, for TDC, I’m Bryce Plank.