The Workshop
After two successful workshop editions (the modelling workshop in March 2021, followed by the DRAMA workshop in 2022), we would like to continue in a similar fashion in the beginning of 2025: reaching out to the broader space debris mitigation community, this time we would like to
- exchange on and become aware of the community activity, concerning working with DRAMA & MASTER and measurements & model validation,
- facilitate and further improve exchange related to space debris mitigation and risk analyses, as well as associated debris mitigation compliance verification tasks, including among others collision avoidance, impact risk thresholds and orbital lifetime assessments,
- discuss the developments made in the frame of the 2020 - 2024 Debris Mitigation Facility in the relatively new context of ESA's Zero Debris policy.
The workshop will consist of dedicated presentations and talks; breakout group sessions with strong focus on open discussions; and guided sessions on use-cases in space debris mitigation practices.
As a result of the on-going stakeholder interaction, the workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss with users on various aspects on how analyses are performed, what may be still missing, and which developments to take in view of the evolving space sector. We invite everyone directly or indirectly affected by the modelling efforts and involved in activities ranging from the studying of the space debris environment, over mission design to policy decisions to participate!
Concept
We believe that addressing space debris modelling and mitigation activities through a participatory process is more likely to be accepted as a reference solution by the community. At the same time, when stakeholders with various knowledge, skills and resources are facilitated to give creative and critical input which is then translated into action, a culture of shared responsibility and ownership is being established, further reinforcing the consent on models and methodologies applied by the community.
The event will be in hybrid format and additional meeting information (incl. connection details) will be provided at a later point. Please specify your attendance preference (on-site presence at ESA/ESOC in Darmstadt or virtual participation). Please notice that attendance on-site is subject to capacity limits. Registered participants with on-site attendance preference will be informed if such measures apply. For online participants, we will aim to accommodate as many time zones as possible. Participation in the workshop is free of charge.
Background
Every satellite put into orbit today is exposed to the space debris environment for the time it is being operated but also during the ensuing disposal phase, which may add many more years of on-orbit presence. The environment is only expected to grow in terms of object numbers, especially in orbital regions that are already strongly affected by space debris pollution today. This means that space missions will be more difficult to operate by today’s standards (e.g. having to address more close encounters) and collisional breakup events, mainly between non-operational objects, are more likely to occur with time. This trend is exacerbated with the dramatically increased launch activity over the last four years and the deployment of large satellite constellations.
Space debris risk assessments targeting primarily the share of lethal non-trackable objects are informed by space debris models, such as the European Meteoroid and Space Debris Terrestrial Environment Reference (MASTER) model. In order to assess compliance with those recommendations, a set of software tools has been developed since the early 2000s and bundled under the Debris Risk Assessment and Mitigation Analysis (DRAMA) suite, which relies significantly on MASTER's background population. The DRAMA (and MASTER) user community has grown considerably within the past few years. In the exchange with engineers, operators, students, regulators and many more, a vision has been drafted by ESA’s Space Debris Office (SDO) team on how all those different perspectives and use-cases can be aligned towards a state-of-the-art application as a next evolutionary step in the space debris mitigation process. Through the creation of a single framework combining the different DRAMA tools; a move towards digital engineering; maximum compatibility with latest standards; and enabling as well as strengthening the community’s connection, the Debris Mitigation Facility (DMF) idea was born.
ESA has always played a major role in leading many of the research activities related to space debris mitigation, at the same time recognising the significant contributions by other institutions and the coordination efforts primarily by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). With space activities mostly conducted by public entities for many decades, ESA and other agencies developing space debris models, associated debris risk and mitigation analysis frameworks, as well as compliance verification means, were most of the time assuming the role of the customer and the user simultaneously. Over the past two decades the roles have shifted significantly, especially in view of the on-going commercialisation of space, and many new entities to get involved in space activities. Continuing the maintenance and the development of the MASTER and DRAMA model and tool suite, the Space Debris Office has recognised that it remained the customer while the user roles have been distributed all over the globe.
