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Space: can a satellite fall on our heads?
Space: can a satellite fall on our heads? – (France 2)
Debris from an old European satellite launched in 1995 will hit Earth, but there is little chance that a human will be injured. A 52 kilo piece could reach the ground, but we don’t know where.
The ERS-2 satellite gradually approaches the atmosphere until it disintegrates in the afternoon of Wednesday February 21. As with all satellites, 10% of its mass will resist and touch our planet. For ERS, that represents 250 kilos of scattered debris, the largest piece could exceed 50 kilos according to the European Space Agency (ESA), but for engineers, there is no need to worry. “We are 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to receive debris on our heads.“, assures Quentin Verspieren, engineer at ESA.
One piece of debris every ten days
This is not a first. A piece of a Russian rocket fell in France in 1989.It is a piece of tank from a Soyuz rocket which fell near Bourges“, explains Christophe Bonnal, president of the debris commission of the International Academy of Astronautics. An event of this type would happen”about every ten days“, according to him. Studies are being carried out to clean up space such as the use of a laser or a giant gripper that could capture waste.
