Space_Situational_Awareness_Programme
Space Situational Awareness Programme
European Space Agency program
The Space Safety Programme, formerly the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme, is the European Space Agency's (ESA) initiative to monitor hazards from space, determine their risk, make this data available to the appropriate authorities and where possible, mitigate the threat.[1]
The SSA Programme was designed to support Europe's independent space access and utilization through the timely and accurate information delivery regarding the space environment, particularly hazards to both in-orbit and ground infrastructure.[2] In 2019 it evolved into the present Space Safety Programme with an expanded focus, also including missions and activities to mitigate and prevent dangers from space.[3] The programme is split into four main segments:[4]
- Space weather: monitoring the Sun, the solar wind, and in Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere, that can affect spaceborne and ground-based infrastructure or endanger human life or health. This data is processed by the Space Weather Service Network and made available freely via the Space Weather Portal. Upcoming missions such as Vigil will contribute to this monitoring system, allowing for timely warnings.[5]
- Planetary Defence: detecting natural objects, such as asteroids and comets, which can potentially impact Earth,gathering observations from telescopes around the world and plotting their path through the sky to calculate the impact risk,[6] as well as coordinating with the international community the response to a possible impactor, through groups such as the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG). ESA will soon launch the Hera mission, a follow-up to NASA's DART mission which performed the first kinetic impact test of Planetary Defence on 26 September 2022. Hera will rendezvous with the impacted Didymos binary asteroid system to study the crater formed, the dust plume released and more.[7]
- Space debris: Tracking active and inactive satellites and space debris to better understand the debris environment; providing data, analysis and advice to spacecraft engineers to perform collision avoidance manoeuvres as well as developing a system of automated collision avoidance. The space debris office also works with the international community on norms and standards for the sustainable future of space.[8]
- Clean Space: systematically considering the entire life-cycle of space activities, from the early stages of conceptual design to the mission’s end of life – and even beyond, to removal of space debris.[9] ESA Clean Space includes EcoDesign, embedding environmental sustainability within space mission design; Management of end-of-life, developing technologies to prevent the creation of future debris; in-orbit servicing/active debris removal, removing spacecraft from orbit and demonstrating in-orbit servicing of spacecraft. The first mission to remove a piece of space debris from orbit will be the ESA-commissioned Clearspace-1.
The Space Safety programme is being implemented as an optional ESA programme with financial participation by 14 Member States. The programme started in 2009 and its mandate was extended until 2019. The second phase of the programme received €46.5 million for the 2013–2016 period.[4]