After several postponements, the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled for Saturday SpaceX succeeded. From the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the US state of California, among other things, the mini-satellite “Adler-2” brought into space. For the scientific management of the “Adler” mission to collect data on the distribution of space debris in Earth orbits, this Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) responsible.
The probe is financed by the Upper Austrian Findus Venture GmbH, built by the US technology company Spire Global led by the Austrian Peter Platzer. The new mini-satellite is around twice the size of the “Adler-1”, which is only ten by ten by thirty centimeters and has been in space for more than a year. “Adler-2” has now been transported into its orbit, which is also at an altitude of around 500 kilometers, as one of a total of around 50 devices on board the Falcon 9 rocket.
Radar and many sensors on board
The aim of the “Adler” mission is to collect information about small objects in various orbits. Current estimates assume 170 million particles larger than one millimeter. The “Eagle” mission aims to improve sophisticated computer simulations that estimate the distribution of space debris. This should make it easier to find safe orbits for probes.
In contrast to “Adler-1”, the successor will provide significantly more data in its outdoor use, which is also scheduled to last around a year. On board is located with the radar “Austrian Particle Impact Detector” (APID) of the OeWF a kind of “space microphone” as well as an optical sensor that is supposed to search the earth’s atmosphere for indications of air pollution. The probe is to deliver around two million data sets to the Innsbruck-based OeWF. The Austrian-Spanish start-up “Tilebox” ensures data transmission.
Behind the shortcut APPID there is a “highly sensitive fold-out sensor array that registers impacts and forwards the signal to the on-board computer. When fully deployed, the plate will have a span of two meters. Correspondingly more scrap contacts are also expected: “More impacts mean more data and with it an even more precise picture of the situation on the subject of space debris in orbit around the earth,” said OeWF Director Gernot Grömer in a broadcast on the successful launch.
In addition to APID, a Spire Global radar system is also on board, which is intended to document space debris in the size range of a few millimeters in the vicinity of the probe. This comes with the sensor “GAPMAP” a “technology demonstrator” from the US company AirPhoton into space. This will test a new approach to measuring air pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere from orbit.
