As a space enthusiast who has spent countless hours gazing at the stars and marveling at humanity’s achievements, I can’t help but feel a sense of awe when it comes to projects like the ESA’s Draco mission. It brings to mind the timeless tale of Victor Frankenstein, a man driven by curiosity and ambition to push the boundaries of life and death.
In the early 1800s, Mary Shelley penned the classic novel “Frankenstein“, during a time when both biology and electricity were shrouded in mystery and intrigue. This story served not only to fuel curiosity but also inspired one of the most renowned works of fiction worldwide. The story’s central character, Dr. Frankenstein, assembled his monster using parts from freshly deceased bodies, and brought it to life with an electric-like “spark” or jolt of energy, which is often symbolized as a bolt of lightning.
The monster emerges from Victor Frankenstein’s quest to explore and perhaps master the line dividing life and death. Regrettably, due to its origin, this creature was destined for a short lifespan and a tragic end by fire. Witness it in Universal’s timeless 1931 film version, Frankenstein, currently streaming on Peacock.
For more than two centuries now, researchers are striving to unravel the less critical enigmas surrounding the demise of spacecraft. Over the past century, humans have propelled ourselves and our technology beyond Earth’s surface, and in that time, around 10,000 satellites and rocket remnants have descended back into the atmosphere, as reported by the European Space Agency (ESA). Additionally, there are tens of thousands of space debris fragments circling the globe in orbit, yet to fall. However, when they do eventually fall, what occurs then?
For More on Space Debris
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The ESA’s Draco Mission, an Experiment to Study Satellite Death
Space travel and its consequences have become an everyday part of life on Earth, but we don’t have a very thorough understanding of what happens to a satellite in its last moments, or how the byproducts of its destruction impact the environment. The ESA has announced the Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object (Draco) mission to answer those questions. The mission is part of the agency’s Zero Debris approach, which aims to reduce and eliminate the creation of space debris by 2030, in part by creating satellites which are “designed for demise.”
“The study of reentry, or how objects like satellites behave when they return to Earth, is crucial for designing safe destruction methods. We need to learn more about what happens when satellites burn up in the atmosphere and confirm our reentry simulation models. The data gathered by Draco will aid us in creating new technologies to make satellites easier to destroy by the year 2030.” (said by Holger Krag, ESA Head of Space Safety)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has given Deimos, a Spanish-based technology company established in 2001, a contract to create a satellite. This satellite will have an approximate weight of 200 kilograms (440 pounds), roughly the same size as a washing machine, with four cameras and 200 sensors for temperature, pressure, and strain monitoring at different locations on the satellite. The objective is to launch this moderately-sized satellite and then carefully observe its destruction.
The plan is for Draco to launch and fly for no more than 12 hours – it will have no propulsion, navigation, or communication systems – before coming back down over the ocean. While the satellite should break and burn up like any other ordinary satellite, the instruments will be designed to survive the event and capture useful data. Once the satellite is gone, a parachute will deploy to buy the surviving data capsule some extra time. The data capsule (an object only about 15 inches across) will have to transmit data to a second geostationary satellite already in orbit, before it hits the water.
Similar to the tragic fate of Frankenstein’s creature, Draco too faces an early demise and a destructive end. However, much like the deceased creature contributing to scientific knowledge in its time, Draco’s sacrifice will aid scientists in understanding the processes that occur when a satellite reaches the end of its operational life.
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2024-09-26 21:16