{"id":9829,"date":"2016-09-01T06:20:11","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T06:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=9829"},"modified":"2016-09-01T06:20:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-01T06:20:11","slug":"copernicus-sentinel-1a-satellite-hit-by-space-particle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/copernicus-sentinel-1a-satellite-hit-by-space-particle\/","title":{"rendered":"Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite hit by space particle"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Before<\/a>
Before and after: fragment impact in space<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ESA engineers have discovered that a solar panel on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite was hit by a millimetre-size particle in orbit on 23 August. Thanks to onboard cameras, ground controllers were able to identify the affected area. So far, there has been no effect on the satellite\u2019s routine operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

A sudden small power reduction was observed in a solar array of Sentinel-1A, orbiting at 700 km altitude, at 17:07 GMT on 23 August. Slight changes in the orientation and the orbit of the satellite were also measured at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following a preliminary investigation, the operations team at ESA\u2019s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany suspected a possible impact by space debris or micrometeoroid on the solar wing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"Sentinel-1\"<\/a>
Sentinel-1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Detailed analyses of the satellite\u2019s status were performed to understand the cause of this power loss. In addition, the engineers decided to activate the board cameras to acquire pictures of the array. These cameras were originally carried to monitor the deployment of the solar wings, which occurred just a few hours after launch in April 2014, and were not intended to be used afterwards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following their switch-on, one camera provided a picture that clearly shows the strike on the solar panel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The power reduction is relatively small compared to the overall power generated by the solar wing, which remains much higher than what the satellite requires for routine operations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cSuch hits, caused by particles of millimetre size, are not unexpected,\u201d notes Holger Krag, Head of the Space Debris Office at ESA\u2019s establishment in Darmstadt, Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n

[pullquote]\u201cThese very small objects are not trackable from the ground, because only objects greater than about 5 cm can usually be tracked and, thus, avoided by manoeuvring the satellites.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

\u201cThese very small objects are not trackable from the ground, because only objects greater than about 5 cm can usually be tracked and, thus, avoided by manoeuvring the satellites.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, assuming the change in attitude and the orbit of the satellite at impact, the typical speed of such a fragment, plus additional parameters, our first estimates indicate that the size of the particle was of a few millimetres.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnalysis continues to obtain indications on whether the origin of the object was natural or man-made. The pictures of the affected area show a diameter of roughly 40 cm created on the solar array structure, confirming an impact from the back side, as suggested by the satellite\u2019s attitude rate readings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This event has no effect on the satellite\u2019s routine operations, which continue normally.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sentinel-1 satellites, part of the European Union\u2019s Copernicus Programme, are operated by ESA on behalf of the European Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sudden small power reduction was observed in a solar array of Sentinel-1A, orbiting at 700 km altitude, at 17:07 GMT on 23 August. Slight changes in the orientation and the orbit of the satellite were also measured at the same time.<\/p>\n

Following a preliminary investigation, the operations team at ESA\u2019s control centre in Darmstadt, Germany suspected a possible impact by space debris or micrometeoroid on the solar wing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium-300x212.jpg",300,212,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",92,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",305,216,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",96,68,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Sentinel-1_medium.jpg",150,106,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}