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Meteoroid shower threatens satellites

The Indian Space Research Organisation is gearing itself to minimise the damage that might be caused to its satellites by Leonid meteoroids that are likely to enter the earth's atmosphere between November 14 and 20.

It's predicted that the storm of meteoroids, associated with comet 55P/Temple-Tuttle, would be at its peak around 0210 hours IST on November 18 and is expected to last a couple of hours on either side of its peak. According to an ISRO press release, during the peak of the storm, about 150,000 particles per hour will be coming in.

"Though the possibility of the satellites getting hit by meteoroids debris is small, the ISRO is taking all necessary precautions to minimise the impact of the meteoroids, if any," the release added.

India's Insat satellites are placed in geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km over the equator while the Indian remote sensing satellites are placed in polar orbits of 820 km to 900 km. The probability of these satellites being hit by the meteoroid debris, moving at about 71 km per second, is estimated to be between 0.01 per cent to 0.03 per cent.

But ISRO proposes to take no chances, taking a series of measures to protect its five Insats (Insat-1D, Insat-2A, Insat-2B, Insat-2C and Insat-2D) and four IRS satellites (IRS-1B, IRS-1C, IRS-1D, IRS-P3) besides the scientific satellite, Sross-C2.

The release said the storm could cause physical, mechanical and electrical damage in the satellites. ISRO will closely monitor the health of all its satellites from the spacecraft control centres, Istrac in Bangalore for IRS and Sross satellites and master control facility at Hassan for Insat satellites, to detect any electrical anomalies during the period. The designers of various satellite subsystems would be present at these spacecraft control centres to guide any corrective operations, if necessary.

The solar panels of the satellites would be oriented in such a way that they present minimum surface area to the approaching meteoroid debris. Some of the operations like the panchromatic camera steering on board, IRS-1C and IRS-1D would be avoided during the meteoroid storm. The operation of X-ray payload on IRS-P3 and the gamma-ray instruments on board Sross-C2 satellite, which involve high voltages, would also be suspended during the period.

Only essential equipment would be kept on during the period. The gyros on board Insat would be kept on to closely monitor the body movement rates to detect any meteoroid hits.

UNI

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