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Satellite Solar Panel Slammed By “Space Particle”

02 Sep 2016

The effect a tiny particle traveling at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometres per hour can have on a solar panel is quite extraordinary.

The European Space Agency has reported a solar panel on the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite was hit by a tiny, millimetre-size piece of space debris around a week ago.

Thankfully, there’s been no impact on the operations of the satellite. However, the damage to the affected panel is quite extensive, affecting a diameter of roughly 40 cm.

“Such hits, caused by particles of millimetre size, are not unexpected,”said Holger Krag, Head of the Space Debris Office at ESA’s establishment in Darmstadt, Germany.

“These very small objects are not trackable from the ground, because only objects greater than about 5 cm can usually be tracked and, thus, avoided by manoeuvring the satellites.”

It’s not clear yet if the object that hit the solar panel was natural or man-made. Below are before and after photos of the array.

Satellite solar panel hit by space junk

Space debris/junk, or orbital debris, is a growing threat. More than 500,000 pieces of marble-sized or larger objects are being tracked as they orbit the Earth. The number of smaller sized pieces is unknown, but even a tiny fleck of paint is enough to cause significant damage.

Tracking helps assess whether the threat associated with close passes of space junk is sufficient to warrant evasive action or other precautions. While debris shields are sometimes used to withstand impacts of particles smaller than one centimetre, shields aren’t suitable for use with solar panels for obvious reasons.

We’ve only been putting objects into space since 1949, but our tendency to litter wherever we are has certainly already left a mark – and will continue to haunt us.

The Sentinel-1 satellites are part of the European Union’s Copernicus Programme, which is a polar-orbiting, all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging mission for land and ocean services. The satellites are operated by the European Space Agency on behalf of the European Commission.

According to eoPortal, the satellites use two solar array wings for power generation. Each wing consists of 5 solar panels using GaAs triple junction solar cells. The average onboard power is 4.8 kW (EOL) and the satellite’s Li-ion battery bank has a capacity of 324 Ah.