image source,Reuters
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida in 2015, but after completing its mission, it didn’t have enough fuel to return to Earth and stay in space.
A rocket launched by the world‘s richest man Elon Musk’s SpaceX is falling toward the moon and China’s Shishi 21 satellite has been found cleaning up space junk, two big news from space.
Two pieces of space news appeared at the same time, showing that the deeper, wider and more frequent activities of human beings in outer space are more and more related to life on earth.
Falcon 9
Musk’s Falcon 9 booster (The Falcon 9) was launched in Florida in 2015, but after completing its mission, it didn’t have enough fuel to return to Earth and stayed in space.
Falcon 9 is expected to crash on the moon on March 4.
It will be the first known uncontrolled The rocket hits the moon.
But he said the crash and explosion would only have a minor impact.
space garbage
Seven years ago, the rocket was abandoned in high-altitude orbit after completing a mission to carry a space weather satellite millions of miles.
It’s part of Musk’s space exploration initiative, SpaceX, and the commercial company’s ultimate goal is to allow humans to live on other planets.
Professor McDowell explained that since 2015, the Falcon 9 rocket has been pulled by the different gravitational forces of the Earth, Moon and Sun in a rather “chaotic” path.
“It’s already dead, and now it’s just following the laws of gravity.”
In fact, after the Falcon 9 died, it became part of the millions of junk in space. These pieces of space junk are machines that are discarded in space after completing their missions, running out of fuel and unable to return to Earth.
Professor McDowell said: “For decades, there were maybe 50 large objects, and we’ve completely lost sight of them. So this has probably happened many times before, and we just didn’t notice it. But this will be the first confirmed case.”
What would a Falcon 9 crash into the moon look like?
According to Professor McDowell: “It’s basically a Falcon 9, an empty metal can of about four tons with a rocket engine in the back. You can imagine driving it towards the moon at 5,000 miles per hour. The moon definitely doesn’t like it when a stone is thrown.”
image source,Xinhua
On October 24, 2021, China will use the Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center to launch the Shijian 21 satellite.
space problem
Falcon 9 will leave a small artificial crater on the lunar surface.
In 2009, Professor McDowell and other astronomers conducted an experiment that rammed a similarly sized rocket into the moon. Sensors collected evidence of the collision to study the crater.
Professor McDowell explained that while allowing space debris to float and occasionally fall has few consequences now, there could be serious consequences in the future.
“If humans have cities and bases on the moon in the future, we want to know what junk is in space. So it’s a lot easier to sort out this junk while there’s no human traffic in space right now, and don’t wait until it becomes when there is a problem.”
China’s Shijian-21 satellite
Just as scientists predicted that a space rocket would crash into the moon, the U.S. “Breaking Defense” website reported on January 26 that, according to a new analysis by commercial space monitoring company ExoAnalytic Solutions, China’s Shijian 21 satellite “appears to be”. is playing the role of a space tug”, towing a failed Beidou navigation satellite away from a crowded geosynchronous orbit (GEO).
China’s state media Global Times immediately reported that “a move by a Chinese satellite was targeted by the United States.”
China’s Shijian-21 satellite, which has attracted much attention from the outside world, was launched on October 24, 2021. China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported on the same day that “Jianjian-21 satellite is mainly used for the experimental verification of space debris mitigation technology.”
This coincides with the latest movements of the Shijian-21 satellite that the United States has noticed.
In fact, in the Chinese media, Shijian 21 was given names such as “space scavenger” and “satellite bodyguard”. Some people even look forward to the day when the Shijian 21 satellite will be able to return China’s historic satellite abandoned in space to Earth.
According to a research report published by the U.S. Air University (Air University), the Shijian 21 satellite is considered an experimental satellite in the Chinese version of the research and development “On-orbit Service, Assembly, Manufacturing Mission” (OSAM) project. OSAM is one of the important projects of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).