Speaker
Description
Join us to explore how materials advancements and purposeful mission design are enabling a new class of satellites platforms.
The disruptive mission architectures of the future will be more efficient through responsible environmental choices. They will be more responsive and resilient to an ever changing space landscape too, with interoperability and forward-compatibility included at their core.
Satellite mega-structures and mega-constellations are a rapidly approaching reality; there’s geopolitical flag-planting in the highest value orbital slots; non-trackable orbital debris is growing as part of business-as-usual in the space sector; and the risk profiles for assets in orbit have never been higher.
Meteoroid and Debris Protection Systems (MDPS) are key mitigation options both for risk-of-damage, and for real-damage-sustained.
Shielding against micro-meteoroids and orbital debris (MMOD) not only reduces the immediate danger of penetration from non-tracked threats, but has a key role to play too in curbing the future MMOD-population growth by reducing ejecta from the now-survivable collisions.
Despite the opportunities such as increased insurability; extended lifespan/greater ROI; new or more advanced mission concepts such as RPO and ISAM; and assured operation in a degraded or contested space-domain; many challenges remain which limit the wide-scale uptake of enhanced protective measures.
Traditional shielding solutions are either limited to protecting against debris smaller than 1 millimeter, or are dedicated single-role, bulky Whipple shields such as are aboard the International Space Station. In this presentation you will explore the existing methods and systems of resilience, and examine promising future avenues around toward a credible in-orbit presence.
To unlock the next phase of value in orbit - leveraging falling launch-costs and mitigating against the risks of an ever-more accessible high frontier - we will have to apply new solutions to old problems: asset overcrowding, pollutive externalities, resource-overuse and so on.
In terms of robust spacecraft design, this means finding elegant ways to integrate zero-debris shielding into smaller platforms where mass & volume still come at a relative premium. It means ensuring that protection doesn’t come at the expense of performance by incorporating instead multi-functional designs (ie: data-generative armoured structural panels with integrated thermal control systems). It means looking ahead to the future of the space industry to proactively identify challenges, now surmountable before they arise.