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LeoLabs was founded in 2016 and its role is truly admirable. Built a radar network to help monitor thousands of functional satellites, non-functional satellites, used missile parts and various other debris I’m in the earth’s orbit, writes the Universe Today portal.
The same company also managed to create an impressive image, albeit a little disturbing visualization all the items mentioned above. It is available on the Internet to the public and can be viewed here. Interestingly, the company’s original goals were completely different. The team had to study the upper parts of the atmosphere.
In Alaska, they built a radar network, which was originally intended to study the behavior of charged particles that come from the solar wind. The company wanted to find out how these particles behave after contact with the Earth’s magnetic field. Due to the collision of the solar wind and molecules in our atmosphere, a beautiful aurora is formed, but these interactions can seriously damage the satellites in orbit.
Waste monitoring
During the research, the team also revealed amount of satellites and space debris. At the time, it was a disruptive element that they tried to remove from the results. Only later did they discover that they were good at detecting objects in orbit and that this could open up new possibilities. At that time, the company began investing in expanding its radar network.
The radar network uses ultra-high-frequency technologies, which allow them to detect space debris with a diameter of only 10 cm. It’s like watching an orange move at 28,000 km / h and a few hundred kilometers away. However, the company can accurately measure the speed of one such object and predict the path for many others 10 thousand km ahead.
Tracking space debris is an extremely important task. Gradual filling of the orbit creates an increased risk of collision. At the same time, a possible collision would mean a number of new fragments that could collide again and then form. precipitation chain reaction.
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