For many years, several countries and space companies have launched satellites into space in order to collect as much information as possible. Even Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, has thousands of satellites in orbit that can be seen from Earth, and which are part of the Starlink project. However, there is a risk that as more satellites are placed in orbit, there is the possibility that they could collide with each other. Obviously this is thought not to happen, although it can happen.
So how do the satellites do to avoid colliding with each other?
What are satellites for?
To begin with, we are going to explain the function that satellites have: they can have various uses while in Earth orbit such as helping GPS systems with navigation and positioning, allowing communication between mobile devices or studying the Earth and space to obtain as much information as possible for future research.
In addition, these systems can stay in orbit constantly since they are programmed at a speed that is fast enough to overcome gravity.
Therefore, it is kept in orbit both by its speed and by the gravitational force that the Earth has on it. The closer a satellite is to the planet, the more speed it has to use to stay in orbit.
There are currently thousands of satellites in orbit . Their size can vary: they can be small and measure just over a meter or, otherwise, some can be the size of a bus. That is why, the larger the satellite, the greater the possibility of it colliding.
How do the satellites avoid colliding with each other?
It is obvious that the space is huge and that greatly reduces the occurrence of a collision between satellites. In fact, all satellites are usually placed in different orbits precisely to avoid this, that they cross and collide.
The satellites have a propulsion system that is based on a storable system, due to the large amount of time that these machines spend in orbit. For example, one of the most basic options is hydrazine monopropellant propellants, which is characterized by not having an ignition system and, in addition, hydrazine is pumped over a catalyst bed that causes it to ignite spontaneously.
That is why a propulsion system is vital that is in all satellites to make sure these accidents do not happen.
There is also the possibility that these ships collide not with each other, but also with space debris that is floating in space.
However, as the number of satellites in space increases, the chances of a collision will also increase. In 2009, for example, an American and a Russian satellite collided, and in that year there were far fewer satellites in orbit than there are now.
It should be noted that the general trend is that, although these satellites belong to different organizations and companies, they are controlled autonomously , although some of them have systems that allow them to detect possible collision risks and change their trajectory to avoid the collision.
The problem is that by doing this, the satellite can automatically slip into the path of another satellite, increasing the risk of collision.
