Space situational awareness ensures space activities are undertaken safely and according to domestic and international laws/standards. SSA in its entirety entails understanding the space environment and being aware of potential threats to space activities. Through SSA, observers can mitigate issues like orbital collisions between space debris and space objects. Therefore, operators should consider their legal obligations, including ownership, liability, and space object control. There are a few things to understand about SSA and how they improve space activities.
Importance of Space Situational Awareness
- Preventing Space Collision
Space objects orbit at a velocity of around 7-8 km/sec. Their combined speeds amount to around 25-30 times the sound when they collide. This further causes the kinetic energy in these particles to exceed that produced by the trinitrotoluene explosion of the same mass. Therefore, the smaller particles from the collision can disrupt the entire functioning of the satellite. Therefore, the space situational awareness network is responsible for tracking orbiting space objects and cataloging them. Maintaining these databases ensures that possible orbital collisions are prevented.
- Provides Information for Mission Support
SSA is responsible for space surveillance and tracking orbiting space objects. This includes checking space weather and monitoring objects near the earth like asteroids. This information is crucial for mission support by providing a timeline for launching operations. Instead of focusing on the security of space assets, SSA relates more to launching requirements and sustaining space missions. The guidelines for these SSA practices are available on the open-source data available on US websites.
- Gaining and Maintaining Space Superiority
A military approach to SSA relates to predictive knowledge about space threats from hostile nations. Decision-makers can therefore use this knowledge to gain and maintain space superiority. Military planners rely on SSA to gain information on observing adversary activities. These include undeclared satellite launches, orbital parameters, parasitic satellites, negative tests, and in-orbit intentional maneuvers during scenarios. It also provides insight into monitoring adversary satellite missile launches to augment ballistic missile defense warning systems.
- Global Benchmarking and Assessment
Developing indigenous SSA capabilities involve creating an elaborate space surveillance network with radars, satellites, telescopes, and ground-based stations. Few countries are venturing into this domain, considering it is a cost-intensive project. The United States is the global SSA leader giving it better capabilities for benchmarking and assessing other nations. Therefore, America’s space situational awareness can reference the standings of countries like India, China, and Canada.
- Ongoing Research and Development
The implementation of space operations presents newer challenges for maintaining accurate information about space objects. SSA ensures sufficient data for researching various ways to find practical solutions to the new challenges. There have been more space launches with payloads exceeding a hundred. It becomes difficult identifying and determine orbits for these satellites after deployment. With space situational awareness, operators can separate and catalog various satellites from numerous payload launches. The space sector is a vital component of the global economy, considering it provides social benefits and supports environmental protection. Therefore, many sectors rely on protecting space assets against artificial space objects, near-earth objects, and weather events. Space situational awareness and space surveillance and tracking are programs that aim at mitigating these effects.
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