Kosmos 482, a Soviet-era spacecraft launched in 1972, has passed out of Earth’s atmosphere. Better yet, it spent more than a half century orbiting the planet! The spacecraft was initially intended for an extended mission to Venus. It never left Earth’s orbit at all, remaining entirely in low Earth orbit since its launch.
To survive and explore the depths of Venus’ acidic atmosphere like never before, spacecraft was designed with an extra robust heat shield and reinforced structure. It did end up breaking into four pieces while in orbit. In fact, international space agencies including the European Space Agency (ESA) have been tracking these fragments very closely. Last week OEM announced that ESA confirmed that debris from Kosmos 482 likely re-entered the Earth.
Experts do not expect Kosmos 482’s uncontrolled return will do significant harm. This is unusual considering its incredible, 12.5-year journey across space. Then they skillfully drive home the point that 70% of Earth is covered by water. This enormous area greatly reduces the risk of debris hurting anyone on re-entry.
Stijn Lemmens from ESA discussed the issue of debris in space and its possible effects on humans living on Earth. To highlight the very small chance of being hit by this debris, he put it like this,
“It’s much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by this piece of space debris.”
The imminent re-entry of Kosmos 482 serves to illustrate crucial questions about how space debris should be managed. Lemmens noted that future missions should consider the design of spacecraft to ensure they can safely remove themselves from orbit. He stated,
“should be designed in such a way that they can take themselves out of orbit safely, preferably by doing controlled re-entries.”
Though the exact location and implications of Kosmos 482’s re-entry remain uncertain, it serves as a reminder of the challenges posed by aging satellites and spacecraft in Earth’s orbit. The recent incident is a reminder of the importance of tracking and managing our growing space debris. We need to act quickly to minimize dangers from relics of former missions.
