SSA program

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The Space Situational Awareness Program ( SSA program ) is a program launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2009 to identify dangers from space, in particular from space debris and near-Earth astronomical objects as well as space weather events . The program includes both the use of existing ESA monitoring systems and facilities as well as their expansion and the creation of new technical and organizational means. One of the reasons for running the program is to make Europe independent of the US Space Surveillance System . The latter is operated by the military and the data is published on a voluntary basis and not in full.

ESA decided on the SSA program in 2008 with a start date of January 1, 2009. Funding for the project has been secured until the end of 2020. It is coordinated by the European Space Control Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt.

aims

The aim of the program was defined as follows:

"The aim of the SSA program is to support Europe's independent use and access to space by providing up-to-date and accurate information and data on the space environment, especially on threats to infrastructure in orbit and on the ground."

The project aims to achieve three key objectives:

  • Near-Earth objects (NEO): Observation of near-earth objects (for example asteroids ) that could hit the earth and thus represent a potential threat. The Gaia mission , which measures orbital data from orbiting asteroids, is making a contribution to this .
  • Space Weather (SWE): Improving the forecast of space weather, for example to protect satellites against solar storms .
  • Space Surveillance and Tracking of satellites and space debris (SST): Monitoring, avoidance and medium-term reduction of space debris ; Output of forecasts about objects that pose a threat to satellites so that countermeasures such as satellite changes can be initiated. All data should be collected and managed centrally. Observations of objects down to a size of one centimeter should be recorded in a central database and continuously updated. If possible, the expected service life of the objects should be determined.

planning

The program was originally planned in two phases:

The first phase from 2009 to 2013 initially included the merger of existing European telescopes and radar stations as well as the creation of such systems. A new data center was also to be built for the SSA program. Provisional services of the program should be available by 2012.

In the second phase, the infrastructure should be completed from 2014 to 2019. For this purpose, ground-based facilities that were merged in the first phase should be expanded and optimized. In addition, a space-based infrastructure was to be developed, which also provides two imaging satellites for the detection of objects in earth orbits .

According to the planning status from 2016, a telescope called "Flyeye" is to be installed on Monte Mufara in Sicily by the end of 2019 [obsolete] in order to automatically identify objects near the earth.

implementation

As part of the SSA program, ESA set up a new “Space Weather Coordination Center” in Brussels and a coordination center for the surveillance of near-Earth objects at the European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) in Frascati , Italy. Both opened in 2013.

In the following four years, numerous development activities for the improvement of existing technical systems and the creation of new systems were initiated. This included, for example, a better evaluation of the data from the ESA satellites and space probes Proba-2 , SOHO and Gaia , studies for other surveillance satellites and the development of the Flyeye telescope.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ESA / ESOC press briefing 09 Space junk security . Presentation by ESA, accessed on August 1, 2010.
  2. ↑ a b About SSA (English). European Space Agency website. Retrieved December 16, 2017.
  3. ↑ SSA Program overview (English). European Space Agency website. Retrieved May 19, 2014.
  4. ↑ Christoph Seidler: Europe wants to monitor space by radar . In: SPIEGEL Online , July 21, 2010. Retrieved July 21, 2010.
  5. ↑ ESA telescope Flyeye. European Space Agency, October 27, 2016, accessed September 5, 2019 (UK English).
  6. ↑ a b The ESA program for space situation assessment. ESA, December 21, 2017, accessed September 5, 2019 .