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https://theconversation.com/right-now-the-sun-is-far-more-active-than-predicted-and-small-satellites-are-paying-the-price-242899>
"Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University’s Binar
Space Program burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. That was always going to happen.
In fact, Binar means “fireball” in the Noongar language of the First Nations
people of Perth.
When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000km or less), it experiences
orbital decay as it drags closer and closer to the surface, eventually burning
up.
But these cube satellites (CubeSats), known as Binar-2, 3 and 4, entered the
atmosphere much sooner than originally planned. They only lasted for two months
– a third of what was expected. This significantly reduced valuable time for
science and testing new systems.
The reason for their untimely demise? Our Sun has kicked into high gear, and
the Binar satellites are far from the only casualty. Recent high solar activity
has been causing an unexpected headache for satellite operators in the last few
years, and it’s only increasing."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
