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> In April, a tiny particle smaller than a grain of sand struck Gaia at high speed. Known as a micrometeoroid, millions of these particles burn up in Earth’s at
by FartyMcFarter 2y ago
> In April, a tiny particle smaller than a grain of sand struck Gaia at high speed. Known as a micrometeoroid, millions of these particles burn up in Earth’s atmosphere every day.
> This object, however, struck Gaia at a very high speed and at just the wrong angle, damaging the spacecraft’s protective cover.
How do they know all this? Did they perform some simulations to find out what kind of particle could have done the observed damage?
- ijustlovemath 2y agoThese satellites have pretty sophisticated Attitude Determination and Control Systems, whose whole job is to measure and reject disturbances. I'd guess the torque applied by the meteorite was found in the telemetry and they worked backwards from there. Here's a paper describing Gaia's ADCS (they use the acronym AOCS to mean the same thing): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261710181_THE_GAIA_ATTITUDE_ORBIT_CONTROL_SYSTEM https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261710181_THE_GAIA_...