The Ecuadorian space agency (EXA) is trying to rescue its first and only satellite after it was struck by the remains of a soviet era rocket.
Its Pegasus nanosatellite, which was put into low Earth orbit last month, hit a cloud of particles left from…
The Ecuadorian space agency (EXA) is trying to rescue its first and only satellite after it was struck by the remains of a soviet era rocket.
Its Pegasus nanosatellite, which was put into low Earth orbit last month, hit a cloud of particles left from the last stage of a Tsyklon-3 rocket that was launched in July 1985.
Although spinning violently – putting its antenna out of use – EXA said the spacecraft survived the non-direct hit and remains in orbit, thanks in part to its anti-radiation shielding and reinforced solar panels. Satellites tend to be particularly vulnerable to any collision in space as their casing is made as thin as possible to lower their weight and reduce launch costs.
EXA also confirmed that Argentine nanosatellite CubeBug-1, which was launched with Pegasus, had been tilted in its orbit after it too was hit by at least one particle.
Ronnie Nader, EXA’s operations director, who designed and built Pegasus as well as being the first Ecuadorian astronaut, said via Twitter that he was hopeful of being able to recover the spacecraft.
The space agency is also planning to launch a second, similar satellite in November.
Nader told SatelliteFinance that the total cost of building and launching both satellites was US$780,000.
“Of this figure, US$80,000 was the cost of the two satellites covered by private investment not including man power, which was donated by the EXA to the nation, and US$700,000 was government investment in launch, insurance, logistics and certification tests,” he explained.
It is understood that Marsh placed the insurance for Pegasus. However, as it is a small satellite weighing just 1.2kg, it is thought to have a coverage of comfortably less than US$250,000.
With the launch of Pegasus on 26 April, Ecuador joined a growing list of countries that can boast to own and operate their own spacecraft. The country sees the mission as mainly a stepping stone to building larger, more complicated satellites. But the spacecraft also had an array of cameras that were designed to search for potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects, such as space debris.
The proliferation of debris after more than 60 years of space exploration is seen as a growing threat for the wider commercial sector.
Experts have warned of a so-called ‘Kessler effect’ scenario, where the density of LEO objects becomes high enough so that collisions cause a cascade – creating more space debris that in turn increases the chances for further collisions. Such an event could hamper all space activity for 50 years, according to recent studies by NASA and the European Space Agency.
These studies claim the effect can be stabilised by removing between five and ten items of large space debris between now and 2020.
Last month manufacturer Astrium was awarded a contract from France’s space agency to investigate ways to do just that.
One of these involves using a space harpoon to impale a piece of junk, such as a stage of a launcher or an end of life satellite, and dragging it towards the Earth to burn up in the atmosphere.
Other space agencies are developing their own solutions as the issue gathers international attention.
However, for the time being, the threat of collisions with space debris is not affecting satellite insurance rates.
One well-placed source said: “Space debris remains a cause for concern, [but] is not yet having an impact on securing satellite insurance – even for LEO.”
