Scientists are considering how to prevent collisions between spacecraft heading to the Moon. At first glance, there are not many of them, but their trajectories are completely uncoordinated.
Collision in lunar orbit
Scientists are increasingly concerned that spacecraft could collide in lunar orbit. Over the past few years, 12 missions have been sent to our natural satellite. None of them was manned, so there was no threat to human life.
However, in the next few years, another 10-20 spacecraft are scheduled to travel to the Moon, and at least some of them will have people on board, so the danger is only increasing. Although at first glance, this may seem like panic.
The fact is that although the Moon is much smaller than Earth, it is still enormous, and these two dozen spacecraft in orbit are nothing compared to the several thousand orbiting our planet. If they manage to avoid an accident, then everything will be much simpler with the Moon for at least a few more decades.
In addition, from the point of view of flights to it from Earth, the lunar orbit is inseparable from the sum of the trajectories that lead to it. Together, they are called a cislunar orbit, and their total area is at least 2,000 times larger than that of Earth’s orbit.
Not enough space
However, scientists say that it is not that simple. Although there seems to be plenty of space, in reality, the range of orbits that are most optimal for traveling to the Moon is very narrow. And in fact, no one coordinates flights there with each other.
So, in reality, the risk of collision is very high. For example, the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s orbital vehicle had to change its orbit four times in a few years, which is extremely high considering that there were only 12 missions.
One way to begin addressing this issue would be to introduce monitoring similar to that carried out for Earth’s orbit. However, in practice, only the US has made unilateral attempts to do so, as this is a matter of national security. Even so, they have not been very successful thus far.
And even if the US military manages to organize such monitoring, it is unclear how to move on to the next step – international cooperation, which stipulates that no country can claim the Moon, according to the Outer Space Treaty. And no one knows how to do that.
Provided by www.space.com
