{"id":230763,"date":"2023-03-13T19:26:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=230763"},"modified":"2023-03-13T19:26:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T13:56:20","slug":"isro-brings-down-decommissioned-weather-satellite-what-is-a-controlled-re-entry-why-is-it-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/isro-brings-down-decommissioned-weather-satellite-what-is-a-controlled-re-entry-why-is-it-done\/","title":{"rendered":"ISRO brings down decommissioned weather satellite: What is a controlled re-entry? Why is it done?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/b>The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201cIsro brings down decommissioned weather satellite: What is a controlled re-entry? Why is it done?\u201d <\/b>published in<\/span> The Hindu <\/b>on 13th March 2023.<\/b><\/p>\n

What is the News?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the first time brought down a satellite – Megha Tropiques-1, in a controlled manner after its end of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is Megha Tropiques-1?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Click Here to read<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

What is Controlled re-entry?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Usually, satellites are left in their orbit after their end of life and because of the gravitational pull of the earth, they come down to the atmosphere over years.<\/span><\/p>\n

It takes debris from the low earth orbit 20 to 30 years to fall to the atmosphere and generations for those in geosynchronous or geostationary orbits to fall.<\/span><\/p>\n

A controlled re-entry<\/b> is possible only for satellites in<\/span> low-earth orbit <\/b>– at about 1,000 kms over the surface of the earth. It involves <\/span>de-orbiting the satellite to very low altitudes to ensure the impact occurs within a targeted safe zone.<\/b><\/p>\n

However, these manoeuvres are not usually attempted because fuel reserves have to be maintained in the satellite after mission life is over.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, this <\/span>controlled re-entry <\/b>is impossible for satellites placed in geo-stationary or geosynchronous orbit <\/b>– where the time taken by the satellite to orbit the earth matches Earth\u2019s rotation – because they are at altitudes of nearly 36,000 kms.<\/span><\/p>\n

For attempting to bring down a satellite from such an orbit, a huge fuel reserve would be needed, which will only make the satellite heavier and costlier at launch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, instead of bringing them down, they are shot upwards at the end of life. These orbits are like parking lots in space where all old satellites are put in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why did ISRO go for controlled re-entry of a satellite?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Other than extra fuel remaining in the satellite after the mission life ended, ISRO attempted the control re-entry to demonstrate and understand the process of doing so.<\/span><\/p>\n

With several satellites\/other objects\/debris moving at extremely high speeds in low earth orbits, it has become imperative to keep the space clean as even the smallest debris can destroy active satellites.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kessler syndrome<\/strong> – A scenario where the amount of space debris reaches a point where they just create more with one collision triggering others – is even scarier.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

ISRO was also following the guidelines of the UN and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) that say satellites should be deorbited after mission life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cIsro brings down decommissioned weather satellite: What is a controlled re-entry? Why is it done?\u201d published in The Hindu on 13th March 2023. What is the News? The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the first time brought down a satellite – Megha Tropiques-1, in a controlled… Continue reading ISRO brings down decommissioned weather satellite: What is a controlled re-entry? Why is it done?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1738,9],"tags":[10498],"class_list":["post-230763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-science-and-technology-daily-factly-articles","category-public","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}