ESA's Swarm satellite narrowly avoids collision with space junk while escaping Sun's wrath

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently had a jumpscare as one of its satellites in the Swarm constellation narrowly escaped a collision with space debris. Not only that, but two of the Swarm satellites were also at risk of crossing orbits and hindering observations as the scientists were trying to raise their orbit to escape the sun's wrath. The Swarm constellation consists of three satellites -- Alpha, Bravo and Charlie -- that were launched on 22 November 2013, to study the Earth's magnetic field.

Europe avoids major crisis

In a recently released report, ESA revealed that a small piece of space junk was hurtling toward Alpha last month, and since the risk of impact was significantly high, the mission teams had to change the satellite's orbit without risking satellites in another orbit or colliding with any other floating debris piece. 

Usually, ESA’s Space Debris Office analyses data from the US Space Surveillance Network about approaching debris and warns ESA’s Flight Control and Flight Dynamics teams 24 hours before the estimated impact time. However, this time the teams only had eight hours to safely execute a collision avoidance manoeuvre while also raising the satellite's orbit to escape the increased solar activity. 

According to ESA, it raised the orbits of both Alpha and Charlie to escape from the solar heat by carrying out 25 manoeuvres over a period of 10 weeks. Interestingly, one of Alpha’s manoeuvres was planned for just a few hours after the possible collision. After successfully raising the orbits, the agency said that failing to do so would have resulted in Alpha and Charlie crossing each other's orbits. This, in turn, might have left the overall Swarm mission 'cross-eyed', limiting its ability to collect accurate data until another set of realigning manoeuvres. 

The experts also noted that the ongoing solar cycle and its increased intensity are putting an extra atmospheric drag on the satellites, which is slowing them down and forcing them to use up more limited onboard fuel to stay in orbit. "Alpha and Charlie were moving up into a less dense part of the atmosphere where they can stay in orbit and collect science data hopefully for many more years and mission extensions", the agency said in a statement. 

Last week, NASA warned that the ongoing 25th solar cycle will further intensify as we move toward the solar maximum, which is in 2025. Tap here to read more about NASA's warnings.