Much of the space debris found in Australia is likely the work of SpaceX

The Australian Space Agency is studying space debris found in farmland in Australia’s Snowy Mountains. Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University, believes these are remnants of the SpaceX mission.

Brad Tucker often receives calls from people who believe they have found space debris. Usually it’s something else. ” This time was different “, he said Guardian.

A few days ago, the researcher received a call from Mick Miners and Jack Wallace, two sheep farmers from Dalgety, a small town in southern New South Wales (Australia), who reported that they had found several charred objects. The SpaceX crew drove two hours to Tucker Farm to look at the damage, suspecting it might be the remains of a Dragon ship.

Stem of capsule

Includes 8.23 ​​m tall Crew Dragon vessel Two subgroups. The top of the vessel consists of a conical capsule with three sub-sections. The bottom is formed by a thermal shield that protects the spacecraft during re-entry into the atmosphere. The pressurized area is for the crew and contains the attitude control and guidance engines. Finally, there is a small removable cover on top of the capsule that protects the docking airlock to the ISS during the spacecraft’s orbit and return to Earth.

The lower part of the ship, ” stem”, is cylindrical in shape. 3.66m in diameter and 3.66m high, this part of the ship was essential for departure but was discarded before re-entry. Half of its surface is covered with photovoltaic cells, which allow the ship’s power supply, while the other half is covered with radiators designed for thermal regulation.

One of these structures was spotted over New South Wales, Australia, on July 9, just days before the two farmers reported. This “stem” encloses a capsule Launched in November 2020.

SpaceX has not confirmed

At the site, Tucker discovers that it is mostly space debris, which turns out to be the latter Composite materials designed to withstand heat. The chamber also showed clear signs of combustion due to atmospheric re-entry. Swinburne University astrophysicist Dr. Sarah Webb agrees with Tucker’s assessment that the debris is compatible with the SpaceX mission.

One of the panels of this junk also appears to have a serial number. However, SpaceX has yet to confirm that the debris belongs to one of its ships. For its part, the Australian Space Agency (ASA) is actively working to support the proper identification of these objects.

Generally, space debris is destined to fall back into the ocean, but some occasionally hits the ground. In 1979, part of the US space station Skylab fell specifically over Western Australia. A few years later, Russia’s nuclear powered satellite landed in Canada. More recently, debris A Chinese rocket Long March 5B made landfall in West Africa and Southeast Asia.