Speakers
Description
The upcoming changes in policy and regulation concerning the European launcher and space industry are going to have a range of consequences on the mission and system design, particularly on dual launches and on ESA missions.
Now that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is adopting new rules to address the growing risk of "space junk" or abandoned satellites, rockets and other debris through a new "5-year-rule" requiring launchers and low-Earth operators to dispose of their in-orbit assets within five years following the completion of missions, it is expected that similar European regulations will follow. In addition to this, ESA is expect to implement a zero net debris policy on all its new missions, which includes the launch elements.
This means that launch adapters need to re-enter within 5 years at best for commercial missions, or be disposed of immediately for ESA missions. This greatly restricts their operational range and imposes in some case unrealistic mission scenarios for the launchers, having to release dual launch adapters under 500km altitude. To solve this issue, the deorbiting kit has been optimised to focus on the immediate disposal service by homogenising its avionics with the D-Orbit standard product lines, focused on achieving the best compromise between reliability and competitiveness while keeping the modularity and scalability aspects that allow it to be used on both launcher elements and satellites.
The kit is a small spacecraft completely independent from the host and is installed on the ground before the launch. Its objective is to carry out the necessary functions to safely perform a controlled re-entry or reduce the altitude of the host at end-of-life or after a failure. By using this, launchers can extend their dual launch capabilities further, and comply to the Zero Debris policy, while satellites can mitigate their end of life reliability and guarantee a safe disposal.
D Orbit aim to contribute to the preservation and remediation of the space environment via several programmes developed with international partners and institutional entities (e.g. ESA, UKSA, ASI, …).
