Ionosphere satellites will study the cause of the ISS deceleration

The Russian Ionosphere-M satellites No. 1 and No. 2, launched in November 2024, have already made significant scientific discoveries in the first six months of operation. Mikhail Mogilevsky, head of the laboratory of the Space Plasma Physics Department at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Izvestia about this.

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"In particular, their measurements showed an extremely high density of ionospheric plasma. This is confirmed by other measurements on spacecraft and on Earth," the scientist said.

According to him, in particular, this factor explains the accelerated deceleration of the ISS and other artificial satellites, which forces them to adjust their orbits more often. Space technology is also amortized faster.

Mikhail Mogilevsky noted that the identified processes may indicate solar activity within cycles with a large time scale that have not yet been studied. The Ionosphere-M devices may have "groped" these processes.

Ionosphere-M satellites No. 3 and No. 4, which will be launched on Friday, July 25, will complete the orbital constellation. This will help to verify the conclusions reached and develop the research results.