Speaker
Description
According to the market predictions, more than 18 thousand small satellites will be launched in orbit in the next 10 years. The advances in satellite system miniaturization, together with the lower costs of manufacturing and testing, make them an attractive option for many applications such as global connectivity and Earth imaging.
Within the ESA Zero Debris approach, more stringent regulations are being defined to address the changes in the space debris environment. As a result of an extensive work of experts from all directorates and subsystems, the new ESA Space Debris Mitigation Standard will be released by the end of this year and become applicable to all new ESA missions.
CubeSats have until now adhered to space debris mitigation measures through natural compliance, being injected in low earth orbits with a natural decay below 25 years. The absence of a propulsion system for disposal manoeuvres or collision avoidance, the use of commercial-off-the-shelf components with low reliability and the limited trackability features makes them one of the most impacted categories by the new ESA Space Debris Mitigation Standard.
In this presentation, the most relevant requirements will be identified, analyzing the challenges and the changes needed in the mission architecture and in the spacecraft design. A trade-off between different disposal strategies to comply with the new requirements will be performed, together with a study of the causes of the most recurrent system failures. Finally, possible solutions and way forward will be presented.
