A new SpaceX tool for tracking satellites and other objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) could help prevent future satellite collisions, and it’s attracting significant industry interest by requiring users to provide data on their own satellites. With concerns about the opacity of some space organizations around the world, such a system could encourage a more transparent picture of how near-Earth space is evolving, potentially preventing it from devolving into a dangerous mess of intersecting orbits.
The system, known as Stargaze, uses the star tracker cameras on SpaceX’s near-10,000 Starlink satellites to image objects in LEO, creating a detailed map of where everything is at any one time. That kind of thing could make a huge difference in avoiding satellite collisions; indeed, SpaceX claims it was Stargaze that helped its satellite dodge that Chinese rocket launch last year.
“Stargaze quickly detected this maneuver and published an updated trajectory to the screening platform,” SpaceX explained (via SpaceNews).
The detection allowed the Starlink satellite to adjust its orbit, narrowly avoiding impact.
“With so little time to react, this would not have been possible by relying on legacy radar systems or high-latency conjunction screening processes,” SpaceX stated. “If observations of the third-party satellite were less frequent, conjunction screening took longer, or the reaction required human approval, such an event might not have been successfully mitigated.”
Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is allowing other satellite providers to tap into Stargaze to improve their own satellites’ in-orbit safety, but it comes at a price: They have to give up the ephemeris data that tells everyone else where their satellites are and what maneuvers they have planned, if any. Money doesn’t need to change hands, but you have to hand over your data.
“While Stargaze can detect maneuvers more quickly than any other system in use today, the most definitive source of satellite trajectories should be provided by operators themselves, allowing deconfliction and minimizing collision avoidance maneuvers,” SpaceX said in its announcement, highlighting that it updates the ephemeris data of its satellites every hour.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen repeated calls for orbital operators to “clean up” near-Earth space to reduce the likelihood of collisions. Damage to a Chinese return vehicle last year from orbital debris showed how dangerous space can become as it becomes busier and harder to map.
A system like Stargaze could go a long way toward helping with that. Joining up with the Office of Space Commerce and its TraCSS system will only help more so.
