SWARM Dodges Collision During Climb to Escape Sun’s Wrath

Thanks c0lo! Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The pressure is rising at ESA's mission control. A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite dodges out of the way of a mystery piece of space junk that was spotted just hours before a potential collision.

This means a vital step in the spacecraft's ongoing journey to safer skies now has to be quickly rescheduled, as violent solar activity related to the ramping up of the solar cycle warps Earth's atmosphere and threatens to drag the satellite down out of orbit...

[...] Swarm is actually ESA's mission to unravel the mysteries of Earth's magnetic field. It's comprised of three satellites, A, B, and C - affectionately known as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.

A small piece of human-made junk circling our planet - known as space debris - was detected hurtling towards Alpha at 16:00 CEST (10:00 a.m. EDT), on June 30. From the trajectory, a potential collision was predicted just eight hours later, shortly after midnight. The chance of impact was great enough that Alpha needed to get out of the way - fast.

Swarm constellation. Swarm is ESA's first Earth observation constellation of satellites. Its mission is to unravel one of the most mysterious aspects of our planet: the magnetic field.

[...] Each one of ESA's satellites has to perform on average two evasive maneuvers every year - and that's not including all the alerts they get that don't end up needing evasive action.

[...] Carrying out evasive action - known as a collision avoidance maneuver' - requires a lot of planning. You have to check that you're not moving the satellite into a new orbit that puts it at risk of other collisions and you have to calculate how to get back to your original orbit using as little fuel and losing as little science data as possible.

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