[meteorite-list] ESA Coordinates International Satellite Reentry Campaign (Phobos-Grunt)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:10:47 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201201121810.q0CIAlKb002226_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Debris/SEMJS2KX3XG_0.html

ESA coordinates international satellite reentry campaign
European Space Agency
12 January 2012

An international campaign to assess the imminent atmospheric reentry of
Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars craft is being coordinated by experts in
ESA's Space Debris Office. Participants include NASA and Roscosmos as
part of the 12-member Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee.
 
ESA experts are working with international partners in a coordinated
prediction campaign focused on Phobos-Grunt, a Russian Mars mission that
is expected to largely burn up in Earth's atmosphere in the next few days.

Phobos-Grunt was launched on 8 November 2011 into an initial Earth orbit
of 206 x 341 km. The injection into an Earth-escape trajectory to Mars
failed, and the spacecraft was declared lost by the Russian space
agency, Roscosmos, on 13 December.

On 2 January, a comprehensive reentry prediction campaign for
Phobos-Grunt was begun by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination
Committee (IADC), a technical forum for the worldwide coordination of
activities related to human-made and natural debris in space.
 
ESOC in Darmstadt hosts reentry database
 
ESA's Space Debris Office, located at ESOC, the European Space
Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, hosts the IADC reentry event
database that is used to exchange orbit data and reentry predictions
among IADC members.
 
Orbit data for Phobos-Grunt are provided mainly by the US Space
Surveillance Network and the Russian Space Surveillance System. In
addition, European radars based in Germany and France are also providing
orbit calculations. Based on this, ESA is issuing reentry prediction
bulletins to its Members States.

According to its Russian owners, Phobos-Grunt has a mass of 13.5 tonnes,
including about 11 tonnes of propellant, and a body size of 3.76 x 3.76
x 6.38 m, with solar wings spanning 7.97 m.
 
Large number of uncertainties affect reentry
 
"Right now, due to the large number of uncertainties in the orbit and
space environment affecting the satellite, the indications are that
Phobos-Grunt could reenter between 13 and 17 January, between 51.4??N and
51.4??S," says Prof. Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office.

He adds that this window will shorten as we approach reentry.

"Analyses by Roscosmos and NASA indicate that the fuel tanks, filled
with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine - referred to as UDMH - will burst
above 100 km altitude, release the propellant and largely demise
thereafter."

"This, combined with a relatively low dry mass of just 2.5 tonnes, means
that Phobos-Grunt is not considered to be a high-risk reentry object."

"Roscosmos expects that at most, some 20 to 30 fragments may reach
Earth's surface, with a total mass of less than 200 kg."

Since the beginning of the space age, there has been no confirmed report
of an injury resulting from reentering space objects.
 
IADC assesses potentially hazardous reentries
 
In recent years, IADC members have developed a data exchange network
specifically supporting the assessment of potentially hazardous
reentries, which allows members to enter and extract orbit data in order
to refine reentry predictions.
 
IADC member agencies include ESA, NASA, European national agencies and
the Russian, Chinese, Canadian, Japanese, Ukrainian and Indian space
agencies.

Results from the Phobos-Grunt reentry campaign will be used by IADC
members to improve reentry models and make future predictions more accurate.
 
Enhancing Europe's observation capacity
 
In 2009, ESA launched the Space Situational Awareness Preparatory
Programme, which, in part, aims to design a network of surveillance and
tracking systems and novel data processing technologies that will enable
Europe to build up a complete catalogue of orbiting objects.

This system will provide highly accurate data to reduce the threat from
on-orbit collisions and improve predictions of where and when
uncontrolled satellite re-entries could occur.
 
 
Contact
 
Contact for media enquiries only
<http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Debris/SEM8H4KX3XG_0.html>
 
Received on Thu 12 Jan 2012 01:10:47 PM PST