What happens if, God forbid, your vehicle gets damaged, and you don’t know who did it? In such a situation too you go to the police. If there is any such incident in any part of the world due to which someone gets harmed, then he goes to the local police and files a complaint. After this the police search for the person due to whom the victim has suffered. But what if such damage happens in space? In such a situation, the responsibility of investigation and inquiry will be of the scientists. Something similar happened when a mysterious object coming at a high speed collided with an MP42 satellite and made a hole in it. Now scientists are looking for the culprit. They feel that such incidents may increase and some concrete steps will have to be taken for this.
This is what happened with the MP 42 satellite:
Satellite company Nano Avionics has released pictures of the damage to its MP42 satellite to be launched in 2022. MP42 satellite was built to host many devices for different customers. This time perhaps scientists may never know why this happened. The cause could be either a micrometeoroid or a piece of space debris.
The company expressed concern, but why?
The company has raised concerns about the need for more responsible space operations. Nano Avionics wrote online that “Whether the impact was from a micrometeoroid or a piece of space debris, the collision highlights the need for responsible space operations on orbit and forces us to consider the resilience of satellites against these types of events,”.
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Need to install security systems?
Is it necessary to install impacts from small meteoroids a constant threat in space? It is not possible to avoid them, but experts have been raising the issue of space debris for years, which may lead to more such attacks in the coming years. Increasing space debris can cause the Kessler effect where a domino effect begins, leading to more and more space collisions. In such a situation, there may be a need to install a good security system to avoid these incidents, such as police or other defense teams having to be deployed to protect the heads of state.
Shared picture:
The company says that in this case, the impact did not produce more debris. But rather a small hole in the solar panel. Posting a picture of the satellite, the company wrote on social media, “This space debris or micrometeoroid impact would have remained undetected without the MP42’s selfie camera.” “But two questions still remain unanswered, when did the impact occur and what caused it.”
Who is the culprit?
Cases like this can quickly become as complex as a police case. What caused the hole? The company does not yet have a direct answer. But has indicated that the prospects for man-made space debris do not look good. Citing ESA, NanoAvionics wrote, “Our best bet is a piece of space debris or micrometeoroid.” It remains to be seen when the space research community unites to take effective steps in this direction.
Citing the European Space Agency, NanoAvionics wrote, “About 3 million kg of man-made objects orbit within 2000 km of Earth, while only 200 kg of meteoroid mass is present within 2000 km of the Earth’s surface at any given time.” According to the ESA, “a collision with a 1 cm particle traveling at 10 km/s (of which about 1 million are in orbit) releases the same amount of energy as a small car crashing into a vehicle at 40 km/h.” Giving a timeline of the event, it said the impact “appears to have occurred sometime between April 2023 and October 2024. That probably doesn’t help much.”
