{"id":3594,"date":"2015-03-27T08:47:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T08:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=3594"},"modified":"2015-03-27T08:47:25","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T08:47:25","slug":"scuttling-satellite-to-save-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/scuttling-satellite-to-save-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Scuttling satellite to save space"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Solar<\/a>
Solar sail could be used for deorbiting satellites<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It takes a lot of ingenuity \u2013 not to mention a massive quantity of sheer force \u2013 to get satellites into orbit. Now space engineers are applying comparable ingenuity to the challenge of getting their missions out of there, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

ESA, working closely with Europe\u2019s satellite builders, will ask industry for new designs to help remove satellites from orbit at the end of their working lives, as well as \u2018passivating\u2019 them \u2013 making them safer for neighbouring missions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The selected concepts will be evaluated in ESA\u2019s Concurrent Design Facility at the Agency\u2019s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. This interlinked multimedia facility allows a large number of different specialists to work on the same software models at once.<\/span><\/p>\n

The aim is to develop common approaches that can be used by upcoming satellites from all of Europe\u2019s main companies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately, space is a finite resource \u2013 including the space closest to our world, the low-orbit realm extending up to 2000 km. Highly prized for Earth observation missions and some types of telecom satellites, low orbit has grown increasingly crowded.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"CleanSat<\/a>
CleanSat workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The real problem comes not from working missions but derelict ones, abandoned in place after the end of operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Left to tumble uncontrolled, they not only pose a collision risk but may also explode, as leftover fuel or batteries overheat, in turn spawning clouds of secondary debris.<\/span><\/p>\n

In reaction, international regulations governing \u2018space debris mitigation\u2019 have been devised. These have been adopted by ESA among many other global space agencies and codified into French law, and are well on the way to becoming commercial standards, too.<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, these regulations demand that satellites should be removed from busy low orbits within 25 years of their end of life, they should be fully passivated to minimise their risk of fragmenting, and their reentries should pose a minimal risk to people on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Deorbit<\/a>
Deorbit sail concepts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSpace industry is facing up to the problem of achieving compliance with mitigation regulations, while minimising any impact on the cost and effectiveness of their missions,\u201d explains Luisa Innocenti, heading ESA\u2019s Clean Space initiative.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo assist them, ESA\u2019s new CleanSat initiative is now seeking to develop modular deorbit systems and techniques with the potential to be adopted in common by all Europe\u2019s satellite builders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Satellites under about 500 km altitude should typically deorbit within the 25 year limit through drag from the top of the atmosphere. Anything placed higher up in space will need assistance to come down.<\/span><\/p>\n

Key mitigation systems under discussion included compact solid rocket boosters \u2013 either to despatch satellites down or else up into less-trafficked \u2018graveyard orbits\u2019 \u2013 as well as solar sails and drag-augmentation devices to push satellites down faster.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Luisa<\/a>
Luisa Innocenti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next month will see an opportunity for companies and institutes to propose ideas for future low-orbit satellite platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEurope\u2019s satellite builders \u2013 Airbus Defence and Space, OHB and Thales Alenia Space \u2013 are providing inputs into the selection,\u201d adds Luisa. \u201cSmaller satellite builders including Deimos, QinetiQ Space and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd are also being consulted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA short list of around 25 mitigation methods will be finalised, followed up by work to create detailed workplans, which will then be presented to next year\u2019s ESA Ministerial Council for approval.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It takes a lot of ingenuity \u2013 not to mention a massive quantity of sheer force \u2013 to get satellites into orbit. Now space engineers are applying comparable ingenuity to the challenge of getting their missions out of there, too. ESA, working closely with Europe\u2019s satellite builders, will ask industry for new designs to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",87,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",305,229,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",96,72,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Solar_sail_medium.jpg",150,113,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}