NASA’s Binar Satellite Program Faces Setback: Early Destruction Due to Increased Solar Activity

Three small satellites belonging to Curtin University‘s Binary Space Program in Australia entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up last week. Although this was expected, the destruction of these satellites much earlier than expected, after only two months, lost valuable time for scientific experiments and system tests. This mission, which was normally expected to last six months, ended in a third.

This group of satellites are called CubeSats, called Binar-2, Binar-3 and Binar-4 in low Earth orbit (less than 2,000 km altitude). As these satellites are in orbit close to the Earth, they slow down over time and are slowly pulled towards the Earth due to friction with the thick layers of the atmosphere, eventually burning up in the atmosphere and disappear. However, the Binar moons disappeared much earlier than expected, lasting only two months.

So what caused this early extinction? Recently, activity on the Sun has increased significantly. This increase affects many satellites in low orbit, such as Binary satellites. According to the news in Science Alert; Strong solar activity poses a serious threat to satellites in space. High solar activity can disrupt the orbits of satellites, causing them to fall to Earth much sooner than expected.

Why is solar activity high?

The reason why the sun’s activity is so high is due to changes in the sun’s magnetic field. The Sun reverses its magnetic poles every 11 years, and its activity peaks in the middle of this cycle. Although predictions have been made about this cycle, the specific activity of the sun cannot be predicted and these predictions are still a developing field of science.

In the last few months, the activity of the sun has reached 1.5 levels higher than expected, giving serious risks to satellites. This increase in solar activity leads to phenomena such as more sunspots, solar flares, and stronger solar winds. This increases the amount of atmospheric drag, especially for satellites in low orbit, causing these satellites to slow down and fall to Earth.

It remained in orbit for 364 days

The Binary Space Program is a research program led by Curtin University that aims to reduce the barriers to working in space. The program’s first satellite, Binar-1, was successfully launched into orbit in September 2021 and remained in orbit for 364 days. Because solar activity was lower at that time, the satellite managed to stay in orbit longer than expected.

However, the duration of the Binar-2, 3 and 4 mission only lasted two months because the Sun was more active than expected. This showed again that while CubeSat missions are low cost, premature termination can be very expensive. The need for more accurate space weather forecasts has become apparent, especially for commercial satellites.

Solar activity is expected to decrease over time. This high activity on the Sun is expected to decrease by 2026, and the Sun will return to its lowest activity level around 2030. Although this is a lesson for the Binary Satellite Program, officials ‘ program continues to prepare for future missions. Future satellite launches are planned in more stable space weather.