Paris (AFP)
ESA announced Tuesday that it had deviated from its trajectory an atmospheric wind observation satellite to avoid a possible collision with one of its counterparts in the constellation SpaceX, intended to provide the internet.
"ESA yesterday made an evasive (altitude boosting) maneuver yesterday to protect its #Aeolus satellite from a collision with one of the satellites in the #Starlink constellation @SpaceX", tweeted the European Space Agency.
"With the increase in the number of satellites in orbit, especially due to mega-constellations comprising several hundred or even thousands of satellites, it will become essential to entrust the execution of the collision avoidance maneuvers to an artificial intelligence" , added ESA.
If the Starlink satellites are currently 60 to turn around the Earth, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, aims to send 12,000 to provide the globe in broadband internet.
"ESA has performed 28 collision avoidance maneuvers in 2018 because of an inactive satellite or fragments of a previous collision.Calculation of trajectories, collision risk, consequences of different actions possible. These maneuvers take a lot of time, "ESA continued on his twitter account.
In the face of the increasing number of space debris - there are more than 20,000 orbiting our planet - ESA intends to ask the member countries of the organization a significant increase in the effort devoted to the security of the planet. space at the ESA Council Meeting at ministerial level in November in Seville.
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