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CONCEPT – ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE – ASAT
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- What is an anti-satellite missile test : Called ASAT in short, it is the technological capability to hit and destroy satellites in space through missiles launched from the ground. In March 2019, scientists and engineers at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) launched a missile from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island launch complex near Balasore in Odisha that struck a predetermined target: a redundant Indian satellite that was orbiting at a distance of 300 km from the Earth’s surface. (a low earth orbit – to minimise debris)
- Why hit and destroy a satellite : The technology is aimed at destroying, if necessary, satellites owned by enemy countries. The test, however, can be carried out only on one’s own satellite. There is a large number of satellites currently in space, many of which have outlived their utility and orbiting aimlessly. One such satellite was chosen for the test. The satellite that had been knocked out was Microsat R, a micro-satellite launched by ISRO on January 24, 2019. The satellite was manufactured by DRDO.
- Satellites are critical infrastructure : A large number of crucial applications are now satellite-based. These include navigation systems, communication networks, broadcasting, banking systems, stock markets, weather forecasting, disaster management, land and ocean mapping and monitoring tools, and military applications. Destroying a satellite would render these applications useless. It can cripple enemy infrastructure, and bring it down on knees, without causing any threat to human lives. India needed to build a “Credible Deterrence” to protect its own space assets.
- Why few countries have it : It requires advanced capabilities in both space and missile technologies that not many countries possess. And destroying space infrastructure like satellites is also taboo in the international community, just like the use of a nuclear weapon. Almost every country agrees that space must not be used for wars and has spoken against weaponisation of space. There are international treaties governing the use of space, that mandate that outer space, and celestial bodies like the Moon, must only be exploited for peaceful purposes.
- Outer Space Treaty of 1967 : India is a signatory to this Treaty, that prohibits countries from placing into orbit around the Earth “any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction”. It also prohibits the stationing of such weapons on celestial bodies, like the moon, or in outer space. “The moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all state parties to the treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes,. There are at least four more multilateral treaties that deal with specific concepts agreed to in the Outer Space Treaty.
- Why is space debris a problem : Anything launched into the space remains in space, almost forever, unless it is specifically brought down or slowly disintegrates over decades. Satellites that are past their life and are no longer required also remain in space, orbiting aimlessly in some orbit. According to the September 2018 issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News, published by NASA, there were 19,137 man-made objects in space that were large enough to be tracked. These included active and inactive satellites, rockets and their parts, and other small fragments. Over a thousand of them are operational satellites.
- Besides these, there are estimated to be millions of other smaller objects that have disintegrated from these and keep floating around in space. According to the European Space Agency, there were an estimated 7,50,000 objects of size one cm or above in space.
- A satellite that is destroyed by a missile disintegrates into small pieces, and adds to the space debris. The threat from the space debris is that it could collide with the operational satellites and render them dysfunctional. According to the ESA, space debris is one of the principal threats to satellites.
- When China carried out its first anti-satellite missile test in 2007, destroying its Fengyun-1C weather satellite, it created more than 2,300 large pieces of space debris, and an estimated 1.5 lakh pieces of objects that were larger than 1 cm in size. Each of them could render a satellite useless on collision.
- Indian test and debris : The Ministry of External Affairs said the Indian test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there was no space debris. “Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back on to the earth within weeks,” it said. The satellite hit during the Indian test, as stated, was orbiting at 300 km from Earth’s surface (LEO). Several analysis of the Chinese test of 2007, which had targeted the satellite placed at more than 800 km from Earth’s surface, said that the debris created in that test would remain in space for several decades, possibly centuries.
- Signal to the world : While the government has conceded that India has long had ASAT capabilities, this is the country’s first demonstration to the world. It has shown that it is capable of bringing down a satellite, and disrupting communication. Targeting satellites in the higher orbits, however, is only a matter of scale — of powering the rockets enough to go deeper in the space. Many of the most strategic satellites are placed in orbits that 30,000 km from earth’s surface or even higher. DRDO scientists claim India has the technology to target these as well.
- Other countries : The countries that have the capability, and intended to carry out the tests, have already done so. The first anti-satellite test (ASAT) was carried out by the US military way back in 1959. The then Soviet Union followed a year later. Thereafter, the two countries carried out a series of such tests up till early 1980s. After that there was a lull, broken only by the Chinese test in 2007. A year later, US brought down a non-functional spy satellite. Other countries which could have the capability, like Israel, have not shown an intention to test.
- Low earth orbit refers to an altitude up to 2,000 km. A satellite in the LEO can monitor activities on the ground and water surfaces. Such a satellite can be used for espionage and pose serious threat to the country’s security in the instances of war.
- An anti-satellite missile, the one that was fired by the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), can target an LEO satellite. The missile can incapacitate or completely destroy the satellite in the LEO range
- PREVIOUS TESTS
- The United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959 when satellites themselves were rare and new. Bold Orion, designed as a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile repurposed to attack satellites, was launched from a bomber and passed close enough to the Explorer 6 satellite for it to have been destroyed if the missile had been armed.
- The Soviet Union performed similar tests around the same time. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it tested a weapon that could be launched in orbit, approach enemy satellites and destroy them with an explosive charge. In 1985, the US tested the AGM-135, launched from an F-15 fighter jet, destroying an American satellite called Solwind P78-1.
- There had been no further tests for more than 20 years.
- Then, in 2007, China entered the anti-satellite arena by destroying an old weather satellite in a high, polar orbit. The test created the largest orbital debris cloud in history, with more than 3,000 objects, according to the Secure World Foundation, a group that advocates sustainable and peaceful use of outer space. The following year, the US carried out Operation Burnt Frost, using a ship-launched SM-3 missile to destroy a defunct spy satellite..
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