Speakers
Description
Most medium and large LEO spacecraft will contain parts which are likely to survive a re-entry. When too many of such parts exist on any one satellite, this can pose a risk to humans on ground, above the regulatory threshold, and a controlled re-entry, with a well-defined impact footprint in an uninhabited area becomes necessary. However, this is implemented at a cost in complexity and mass that may well drive the satellite design beyond the capability of low-cost launchers, such as VEGA.
Over the last few years, the concept of semi-controlled re-entry has been considered and studied in further detail. In such a scenario, the probable debris fallout zone is comparable to that of an uncontrolled re-entry, but the certainty of its location can be smaller than one orbit ground-track of can reach a few orbit ground-tracks. The semi-controlled re-entry minimises the casualty risk by ensuring that these successive ground tracks are uninhabited. This is possible by controlling the satellite down to a final orbit which will re-enter the atmosphere within a day or two, and by reducing and/or managing uncertainties during this uncontrolled final descent.
Airbus has been investigating this concept through internal research as well as studies for CNES and ESA. This presentation highlights the result of the latest study for ESA, including the simple sizing rules for determining applicability of the approach to future missions, and evaluation of the performance of the semi-controlled re-entry applied to three study cases.
