THE European Space Agency (ESA) announced this Monday (9) the success of the first controlled reentry of a satellite into the Earth’s atmosphere .
The Cluster mission instrument ended its services after 24 years of research and its return provided data on how objects disintegrate in the atmosphere and brought solutions for the collection of these satellites, avoiding space debris.
The instrument crashed in a remote area of ​​the South Pacific Ocean, west of Chile, but not much of its 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) is expected to survive the fall as fragments enter Earth’s atmosphere burning up.
ESA’s Cluster mission pioneered studies of Earth’s magnetic field — the magnetosphere — and solar winds, providing a greater understanding of our planet’s shield. The data obtained by the satellites has been essential to advancing space exploration over the past 24 years.
The other three instruments of the mission are still in orbit and will make their controlled reentry between 2024 and 2026 under different space weather conditions to allow studies of how satellites disintegrate in the atmosphere.
Such a maneuver must be planned years in advance so that the satellites’ paths can be adjusted. The devices must be aligned to a limited geographic region so that they can re-enter the atmosphere at a specific time and minimize the creation of space debris.
ESA’s goal is to create solutions to the problem of space debris by showing that it is possible to return satellites from older missions to Earth.
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This content was originally published in Satellite makes first scheduled reentry to Earth; see photos on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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