What happened to the more than 40 newly launched satellites that were destroyed by solar storms before they reached their intended orbits? Musk's lunch is not fragrant again!
According to CNN, of the 49 Internet satellites launched by SpaceX on February 3, 40 were hit by solar storms the next day, and the satellites were falling out of low Earth orbit or had fallen into the Earth's atmosphere!
When the solar storm struck, Musk's starlink satellites were in a "critical position" in low-Earth orbit. In order not to affect the operation of other satellites and to facilitate the fall of waste into the atmosphere, SpaceX deliberately launched thousands of satellites into unusually low orbits. Of course, the difficulty and cost of launching will be greatly reduced.
In order to save the satellites, the SpaceX ground working group has tried various methods to reduce the flight resistance of the satellites and enter a higher, more stable orbit, including putting the satellites into dormancy!
However, the resistance generated by the solar storm was too great, 40 satellites fell into the Earth's atmosphere one after another, and only 9 satellites escaped, and it is still surviving. It is understood that the cost of manufacturing and launching a single Starlink satellite is about 500,000 US dollars, which means that 20 million US dollars have been adrift overnight! And that doesn't include hidden costs like communication, time, etc.
After the accident, SpaceX said that the total weight of each satellite was less than 260 kilograms, and whether it was flying in orbit or falling into the atmosphere would not pose any danger. For SpaceX, experts from other countries do not agree, to know that a 10 cm space fragment is enough to destroy a spacecraft!
Musk's satellites 1095 and 2305 were close to the mainland's Tiangong space station in July and October 2021, respectively, forcing the station to implement active collision avoidance. According to the original design, the 2305 satellite was first launched to a 330 km orbit and then lifted to a 550 km orbit, but why did it run around the Chinese space station located at 390 km? His heart is damned!
What's even more bizarre is that before the accident, the US Atmospheric Administration had issued an abnormal warning of solar activity on the day of SpaceX's launch, saying that there was a high probability of solar storms on February 4, and SpaceX could not have been unaware.
But for some reason, SpaceX still insisted on launching the Falcon 9 rocket on time, first sending 49 satellites to a 210-kilometer low-Earth orbit, and then activating the Hall thruster to eventually deliver the satellites to a 540-kilometer orbit.
However, when the sun storm arrives as promised after the satellite enters low-Earth orbit, the collision of external income in the atmosphere leads to an increase in the density of the upper atmosphere. The starlink satellites were subjected to 50% more resistance than usual, some of them fell directly into the atmosphere, and some of them also fell into the atmosphere after struggling a few times and burned.
The hidden dangers of starlink satellites
Many countries around the world are angry about Musk's Starlink program. Once the Starlink plan is fully implemented, Musk alone will have more than half of the world's active satellites, which is bound to squeeze out more superior orbital positions and force the satellites of other countries to the corner!
Russian scientists say that a large number of starlink satellites will seriously affect astronomical observations, especially at dusk. According to statistics, about 6% of the dusk observations in 2020 will be affected by the starlink satellites, but by the end of 2021, the number has climbed to 18%.
Therefore, Musk's star chain will not only be threatened by outer space, but also under pressure from other countries.
Powerful solar storms
The culprit in the collective scrapping of 40 satellites was undoubtedly the solar storm, which in fact caused several space disasters.
Solar storms are a series of strong disturbances caused by the intense activity of the sun's eruptions, and the energy released is mainly presented through three forms: high-energy charged particle streams, plasma clouds and electromagnetic radiation, and produces flares and corona phenomena.
A sudden Bastille solar storm in 2000 caused dozens of satellites to malfunction, one of which failed permanently. During the solar storm, the electronic sensors larger than 2 megaelectronvolts in the US GOES-10 satellite failed, and the satellite was engaged in monitoring environmental operations and had no data transmission for two days. The solar panel cell output efficiency of the U.S. Solar and Heliosphere Observation Satellite is severely attenuated and the service life is shortened by one year.
Solar storms not only affect satellites, space stations and other spacecraft, but also damage electrical equipment and power grids on the ground that reach the Carrington level. On September 1, 1859, the British astronomical enthusiast Carrington inadvertently discovered sunspots, and the Second Earth Magnetic Observatory detected unusually strong geomagnetic disturbances. Experts said that they were glad that the power was not developed at that time, there was no satellite, if it is now, I am afraid that all will be paralyzed and scrapped!
On March 13, 1989, a solar storm swept through quebec, Canada, where powerful charged particles intertwined with the Earth's magnetic field, some transformer coils overheated and burned, multiple main circuits were damaged, and the power outage lasted for nine hours. Experts say the solar storm actually took place on March 9 and took 2-3 days of trekking to Earth.
Original: Blog post