Analyses
For satellite manufacturers, operators and equipment suppliers, typically when a regulator, launch provider or customer asks for a casualty risk figure.
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Re-entry survivability
Which parts break up, melt or reach the ground, modelled component by component. Critical hardware such as reaction wheels, optics and pressure vessels is modelled in detail.
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On-ground casualty risk
Casualty area and risk against the limit you must meet (1 in 10,000 for ESA and the FCC), with the sensitivity to break-up altitude and material data.
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Design-for-demise
Material and geometry changes that bring a design within the limit, identified and checked before design freeze.
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Thermal and ablation modelling
The heat load and material response behind the results. Payload thermal modelling is the subject of my doctorate.
Worked examples
Two real projects, assessed as uncontrolled re-entries with ESA DRAMA.
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Crystal Eye
Sòphia High Tech, NaplesScintillator payload, modelled part by part. Casualty area of zero: only the electronics box demises, and every surviving part stays below the 15 J threshold.
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NUSES
Sòphia High Tech, NaplesFull satellite model, from bus and solar panels down to batteries and payload units. Scintillator crystal size proved to be the deciding parameter for casualty risk.
Working together
A STEP model, the mass budget with materials, the orbit and end-of-life plan, and a list of the critical equipment. Partial data is enough to start, and I work under NDA.
A report with the assumptions, cases run, component-level results and the casualty figure. It marks which results follow from the physics and which depend on assumptions, so it stands up in a review.
Tools: ESA DRAMA, COMSOL Multiphysics.
Background
Doctorate at the Gran Sasso Science Institute on Methods for Structural and Thermal Validation of Scientific Payloads, which reports the Crystal Eye design changes and their verification. Speaker at the European Space Thermal Engineering Workshop, ESA-ESTEC, 2024, on NUSES and WINK thermal management.
Contact
A short note on the spacecraft and the requirement is enough to start. You deal with me directly, and I reply with a proposed scope.