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Old 29th November 2020, 15:23   #1
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ISRO & Russian satellites come within 224 meters of each other; how dangerous is this?

Date of incident: 27th November 2020.

As of January 2020, there are around 2,000 active satellites orbiting the earth. There are also more than 23,000 pieces of debris larger than 10cm (4inches) in orbit, according to NASA.
The last large collision of satellites happened in 2009, when a US commercial Iridium spacecraft hit a defunct Russian satellite over Siberia, producing thousands of pieces of debris.

Quote:
India's Cartosat 2F weighing over 700kg dangerously approached the Kanopus-V spacecraft at 1.49 UTC, on Friday, according to the Russian Space Agency. In a tweet, Roscosmos has said that the minimum distance between both Russian and foreign satellite was 224 meters. Both the satellites are meant for earth's remote sensing.

1 Kilometer is an ideal distance between satellites in orbit, whereas 224 meter is scary and can be counted as a near miss. Generally, when two satellites are predicted (based on calculations) to make a close pass, a decision is taken to manoeuvre one of them away in advance(usually days ahead).

Given how space is getting increasingly crowded with satellites that are used for various purposes, it is said to be normal for agencies to manoeuvre one of their satellites every 3-4 weeks. It is notable that low Earth orbit (500-2000km) is the most congested, with satellites of various sizes - ranging from 10cm cubes to ones that are the size of a car or larger.

However, the decision to manoeuvre is not very easy. Especially, when the satellite is performing a strategic role that requires it to be at a particular spot. Because the manoeuvre would affect the schedule of the pre-planned operation of surveillance (in whatever form). In this case, Roscosmos has said that both are remote sensing satellites, which implies that they in all likelihood used for strategic purposes.

The space community has been divided over the prediction models for tracking satellites in orbit. The existing ones are the European Model, American model, Russian model, whereas the Indian model is under development. The reason that the space community hotly debates the efficiency of the models is that there are differences between the calculations made using each model.
Source: https://zeenews.india.com/science/is...s-2327114.html




Source: Defense Watch YouTube channel.

Last edited by ruzbehxyz : 29th November 2020 at 15:28.
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Old 29th November 2020, 17:35   #2
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re: ISRO & Russian satellites come within 224 meters of each other; how dangerous is this?

Thanks for sharing this article. Quite an interesting topic because we humans have captured land, water and sky and I guess now its space. I was just thinking if the big bad boys of the world such as US, Russia or China can also equip satellites with some kind of guns or a satellite destroyer to bully other countries and move their satellites out of the way. Experts request you all to share your knowledge on this .
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Old 29th November 2020, 18:39   #3
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re: ISRO & Russian satellites come within 224 meters of each other; how dangerous is this?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz View Post
Date of incident: 27th November 2020.

As of January 2020, there are around 2,000 active satellites orbiting the earth. There are also more than 23,000 pieces of debris larger than 10cm (4inches) in orbit, according to NASA.
The last large collision of satellites happened in 2009, when a US commercial Iridium spacecraft hit a defunct Russian satellite over Siberia, producing thousands of pieces of debris.
....
.
Quite a close shave. 224m is incredibly small in the context of space.

On a lighter note, I can imagine our Indian Cartosat flashing its high-beams on the Russian satellite much to the confusion/bewilderment of Russian Space Scientists
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