Secret letter reveals the cause of British satellite

The secret letter revealed that the first British satellite cause of Ariel-1 was broken after an American nuclear test.

The real cause of the first British satellite failure

On September 10, 1962, a top-secret report of the second Viscount Hailsham submitted to British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan a detailed description of the cause of losing contact with the Ariel-1 satellite.

Newly launched into space in April 1962 under a project linked to the United States, this scientific satellite is tasked with studying the Earth's upper atmosphere and the effect of X-ray radiation from the Sun. The satellite still works perfectly until July 13, when the signal suddenly loses.

The light emitted from the nuclear test in 1962 looked from Honolulu, nearly 1,500km away.(Photo: Wikipedia).

4 days earlier, the United States conducted a nuclear warhead test, known as the Starfish Prime campaign , exploded in space at an altitude of 400km southwest of the Johnston Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

With the destructive power equivalent to 1.4 million tons of TNT, the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated from the nuclear explosion in space is so powerful that it blew off the street lights in Hawaii, away from the testing area for nuclear weapons. 1,000km, disrupting radio communications worldwide, creating a temporary artificial radiation belt around the Earth, paralyzing some low-orbit-based satellites, such as Telstar - satellite First commercial telecommunications of mankind and even Ariel-1.

In the report, Viscount Hailsham - the current chairman of the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, says that the Ariel-1 satellite is not completely removed, even though solar panels are damaged. heavy.

"We get a lot of valuable data during the time that satellites operate," Hailsham wrote. "Before the explosion, satellites transmitted thousands of hours of data, needing at least a year to decode them."

Hailsham stressed that, besides the interesting scientific values, the short life of Ariel-1 satellites warns of the great danger of nuclear energy when it becomes a weapon, which needs to be prevented by a round. common convention.

Viscount Hailsham died in 2001, aged 94 years.(Photo: BBC).

EMP is capable of baking nine electrical and electronic devices, including space, breaking defensive radar systems, disrupting communications, and even disabling the entire electrical infrastructure. .

"EMP weapons are rarely mentioned," said Elizabeth Quintana, of the Royal Institute for Security - Defense Research (RUSI), director of the Space Technology and Energy program, admitting. "But they are filling up in military arsenal."

Starfish Prime is a terrifying demonstration of the tremendous power of weapons of mass destruction using electromagnetic pulses , increasing the potential concern about the easily destroyed space infrastructure, especially when our lives today depend closely on those space devices. Therefore the consensus of the nations of the world, especially the large countries with military potential, is needed to prevent such horrifying nuclear explosions.

One year after the letter to Viscount Hailsham's prime minister, the ban on experimental testing and nuclear proliferation between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union was signed in 1963. Not only that, but also the prime minister himself. Macmillan sent a reply to Hailsham with the title "Thank you very much for the wonderful letter you sent". However, it must be 50 years later, the letter will be made public.

In addition to the tremendous damage caused by turning into weapons, the devices that use the power of the electromagnetic pulse bring many potential effects. Space devices such as satellites or spacecraft, often operate in harsh environments, constantly being attacked by cosmic rays and charged particles from the Sun. Meanwhile, an EMP weapon similar to Starfish Prime can be used as a shield to shield radiation, effective, and cheaper protection, modern satellite systems.

Tay Xuong Space Center, Sichuan Province, China - which controls the weather satellite destruction.(Photo: AFP).

The electromagnetic pulse generated from the nuclear explosion on space in 1962 could completely damage the early satellites with primitive designs, but it was also a cosmic technology developed to eliminate the The debris is hovering around Earth's orbit.

Cosmic garbage is a major problem in space research. In 2007, China used a ground-based ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite, creating a dangerous cloud of debris in orbit and worried the international community, because they could Use a device like an EMP weapon to remove and pull the satellite that has lost its effect from Earth orbit.