Speakers
Description
In recent decades, due to the growing number of satellites and missions in low Earth orbit, the proliferation of space debris poses significant risks to operational spacecraft, human life, and the broader ecosystem. To mitigate these dangers, regulatory entities, including the European Space Agency (ESA), have implemented stringent guidelines such as the Space Debris Mitigation Policy, aiming, among many goals, to minimize risks to populations and infrastructure on the ground.
The improvement of spacecraft demisability during atmospheric re-entry is at the core of this risk control and unfortunately, many of currently designed spacecrafts require materials and structural parts which resist to atmospheric re-entry ablation. The Demisable EO Payload Mechanical Interfaces (Bi-Pods and
Brackets) - ESA AO/1-12498/24/NL/JB study is directly targeting this critical topic, by focusing on the uncomplete demisability of some critical parts like titanium brackets and bipods. Such parts are commonly used on Earth Observation Spacecrafts, especially for thermo-mechanical stability and to ensure the high performance of embarked optical systems.
In order to propose risks mitigation solutions for such critical parts, this ESA study aims at developing innovative titanium brackets & bipods design approaches, through topology optimisation based on cutting-edge re-entry simulation software. By leveraging these technologies, it is then possible to design brackets and bipods with engineered features that promote heat absorption, rapid ablation, and fragmentation during re-entry. Such improvements aim to ensure compliance with mitigation standards while maintaining high quality structural performance in orbit. Different manufacturing processes will also be taken into account (standard machining & ALM), to assess potential additional benefits.
The topology optimised bipods & brackets will undergo detailed simulations and analyses to demonstrate the improvements in terms of demisability while maintaining their thermo-mechanical stability performances. These simulations will be confirmed through demisability tests performed in Plasma Wind Tunnel facilities and will allow further correlation of current models and hypotheses. The study will then pave the way forward for more demisable earth observation critical parts design and better optimisation during spacecraft design phases.
The study’s consortium is based on Airbus Defence & Space, RTech & the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI). While Airbus Defence & Space lead the study, benefitting from its large Earth Observation heritage and background, RTech provides the re-entry simulation expertise and capabilities for the bipods & brackets design optimisation, and VKI support the study with its Plasmatron facilities and test expertise.
At the end of this study, Airbus Defence & Space aims to reach a better balance between in-orbit thermomechanical functionality and controlled demisability, thereby avoiding reliance on costly and complex re-entry strategies. The study started in 2025 and should reach its main goals and conclusions by the end of 2026 through both re-entry simulations and tests. Topology optimisation is currently under going thanks to the expertise of RTech with very interesting perspectives on the demisibility improvements for both brackets & bipods use-cases.