SpaceX's website posted a news report saying that at least 40 of the 49 StarLink satellites launched by Falcon 9 into low Earth orbit on February 3, Eastern Time, have been deorbited and fallen into the atmosphere due to geomagnetic storms!
"Space Pearl Harbor Incident"?
According to the news released by the SpaceX website, the satellites were launched at 1:13 p.m. on February 3, and the Falcon 9 was launched from the 39A launch site of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying a total of 49 satellites.
The target is an inclined orbit with a perigee of 210 km, an apogee of 339 km and an inclination of 53.2 °, and you must think how this orbit can be so strange, yes, its perigee is very low, because after separating from the Falcon IX rocket, these satellites must be monitored, and when the function is normal, they will start the ion engine and pull the orbit round, that is, the 339 km orbit.
This batch of satellites should be part of the third batch of satellites: 7500 V-band starlink satellites, if the monitoring is not qualified, then they will slow down in this orbit to re-enter the atmosphere, to avoid "pollution" low-Earth orbit, Musk's consideration is still relatively sufficient, but it is not expected to be a problem.
According to the information released by the SpaceX website, the 49 satellites are very normal, each satellite is flying under control, but soon after the satellite entered orbit, it encountered a geomagnetic storm, the upper atmosphere was bombarded by particles and expanded by heat, the thin atmospheric resistance at an altitude of 210 kilometers increased significantly, and the spaceborne sensor indicated that the resistance ratio was increased by 50% compared with the expected increase.
The StarLink team controlled the satellite into a safe mode, which adjusted the satellite's attitude to make the solar wing fly sideways to minimize the "air resistance", but unfortunately the air resistance was too large to complete the orbital maneuver, and eventually 40 satellites fell into the atmosphere because they could not obtain enough speed. Theoretically, these moons wouldn't fall to the ground, they would burn out completely in the atmosphere, and it stands to reason that a string of super-fire meteors should be seen somewhere on Earth.
Musk this time should be a heavy loss, Falcon 9 standard version of the quotation of $62 million, the cost of a single star chain satellite is about $500,000, this time Musk almost lost about $80 million, even if the quotation includes profits, how to get more than $60 million, and the launch process should be insured, but has been in orbit "delivery", the insurance company should not be responsible for it, which insurance industry insider may wish to leave a word.
Once lost 40 satellites, some friends joked that Musk suffered the "space Pearl Harbor incident", but this time the culprit is the sun, and he wants to avenge the snow hate.
How exactly did geomagnetic storms affect satellite operations?
It all started on January 30, 2022, when the sun sneezed and a CME event (Coronal Mass Ejections) erupted, at the level of M1.
It erupts on January 30, 2022, and will reach Earth on February 2, 2022
This is the process of releasing charged particles from the coronal material after solar flare activity, causing it to escape the solar gravity and project into the solar system, known as the coronal material ejection event, according to the space probe stationary environment observation satellite (GOES) measured near the Earth' peak flux of X-ray, in watts per square meter (W/m^2) divided into A, B, C, M or X several different grades:
With the current CME event level, X level is the highest, of course, the larger the number followed by X, the higher the level, such as the energy of the X-2 flare is X-1, the one on January 30 is M level, the impact is actually not very large, may cause spacecraft communication interruption, but not to reach the catastrophic level.
NOAA's model shows the impact time of the February 2, 2022 CME
For example, the Carrington incident in 1859 reached the X-28 level, if it happened in modern times, it is estimated that the satellites in the Earth's orbit will be directly swept away, and what Musk did not expect was that an M-class coronal mass projectile event could actually make 40 satellites fall into orbit.
The bombardment of charged particles on the upper atmosphere will heat the atmospheric molecules, then the earth's atmosphere will expand so much, although there is only one point, but the earth's atmosphere is as high as hundreds of kilometers, and the upper atmosphere extends farther, so this expansion, originally above the threshold of the satellite ion engine to maintain the orbit, the result is that because of the encounter with higher density than expected atmospheric molecules, the original low thrust ion engine, Even in safe mode, there is not enough power (the solar cells are facing the way forward and may not be continuous) to turn on the engine.
The result is that the result of the thrust is less than the resistance, this is dumbfounded, the satellite is getting lower and lower, and finally fell into the low orbit of "the atmosphere is more dense", which can not be saved, can only watch the satellite getting lower and lower, and finally disappeared into a meteor in the sky.
Ion engine of Starlink satellites
Is it just an increase in resistance?
In fact, another threat of coronal mass ejection is more serious, high-energy charged particles may burst into the low-level space orbit, directly bombard the satellite, resulting in insufficient reinforcement of the satellite chip reset or even breakdown, the end is that the satellite temporarily lose contact, out of control or even disintegrate, such as Japan's "pupil" satellite launched X-ray observation on February 17, 2016, working less than a month because of the high-energy particle bombardment caused by the attitude control circuit out of control, and finally high-speed roll disintegration.
Because there are not a few satellites that have been damaged by solar activity, even the space station will be particularly reinforced, and there is a geomagnetic anomaly region over the South Atlantic, where the charged particle area is as low as 200 kilometers, and many satellites pass through here in safe mode and no longer work, even including the Hubble Space Telescope. (In general, the Van Allen radiation belt holds most of the charged particles, but the geomagnetic anomaly region is not in this list.)
South Atlantic magnetic anomaly
If the level is strong enough, such as reaching the Carrington level, then it is not only a satellite in orbit, it can even affect the ground long-distance transmission system, communication circuits, etc., because powerful charged particles will impact the earth's magnetic field, resulting in a large change in the geomagnetic field, and the long-distance wire will be like a generator cutting magnetic field, these slowly changing currents will be dissipated on the transformer, causing the core magnetic to pass through the load, the coil overheating and burning, thereby destroying the transmission line.
The Quebec blackout of March 13, 1989, was caused by a coronal mass ejection on March 9 of that year, because the charged particles were slower, it took about 2-3 days to reach the Earth, and we sometimes saw solar flares erupting, but not necessarily because it was slower, and the luck of the Earth was perfectly dodged.
But can the earth be so lucky every time? not necessarily!