Dead satellite set to crash to Earth

[Kyng]

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2...569187007/

After 16 years of operation, a defunct satellite could crash back to Earth this month. But odds are any debris will land in a body of water.

The European Space Agency launched the Heritage ERS-2 satellite in 1995 after its sister satellite, ERS-1. The ERS-2 ended its mission in September 2011.

The space agency used the satellite to track the Earth's decreasing polar ice, shifting land masses, rising sea levels, warming oceans and changing atmospheric chemistry. Since the satellite's retirement, the agency has been slowly lowering its altitude.

The agency said its maneuvers "used up the satellite’s remaining fuel and lowered its average altitude from 785 km (488 miles) to about 573 km (356 miles) in order to greatly reduce the risk of collision with other satellites or space debris." The maneuvers also altered the satellite’s orbit so it would reenter Earth’s atmosphere within 15 years.

---

Yeah, always a bit concerning when they have no way of controlling its re-entry . Fortunately, the odds of it landing on someone's head are estimated at one in a billion.

Still, let's just hope it lands in the water, far away from any population centres!

[slooroo]

It just makes me think about how much junk is in Earth's orbit right now and how much of a problem that'll cause over time.

[Kyng]

It just makes me think about how much junk is in Earth's orbit right now and how much of a problem that'll cause over time.

Indeed - it's just accumulating up there. And the more the bits crash into each other, they break into more and more smaller bits (a bit like on Asteroids, where the big rocks become a lot more dangerous after you break them into several smaller ones ).

Fortunately, there have been several proposed solutions (and we also have a thread specifically about the problem, if you or anyone else has any ideas on how to fix it !)

[ZandraJoi]

It just makes me think about how much junk is in Earth's orbit right now and how much of a problem that'll cause over time.

That was my first thought as well! Yes, the Earth is mostly ocean but how can they truly predict where any of that stuff would land. Humans take care of outer space like they do the literal earth. Badly!

[Kyng]

As a final update to this, the satellite burned up on re-entry over the North Pacific, between Alaska and Hawaii:

https://www.extremetech.com/science/phot...atmosphere

So, it sounds like it was all completely safe in the end .