Hazards associated with reentry

Omaly P., Ailor W., Pardini C., Kenichi S., Lips T., Soares T.

Reentry breakup  Casualty expectation threshold  Cumulative risk limit  Space vehicle demise  Reentry prediction uncertainties  Atmospheric drag  Object-oriented and spacecraft-oriented reentry breakup tools  Controlled and uncontrolled reentries  Hazards associated with reentries 

This report provides insights on the current state of understanding of hazards associated with space vehicle reentry and their prediction and regulation. Topics discussed include. • Current regulations and guidelines that limit hazards to people from a single object reentry and describe recent desires to minimize hazards associated with reentries of multiple satellites from individual large constellations. • Tools and material data that are used to model reentries and estimate ground hazards. • Issues associated with object-oriented and spacecraft-oriented reentry prediction tools. • Uncertainties that affect the ability to predict where and when an object will decay from orbit and reenter the atmosphere, and. • Flight experiments that collect data to help understand reentry breakup and improve hazard prediction models. The report provides recommendations for future work and next steps that should be considered to improve models and reduce reentry hazards as new space systems emerge and evolve.

Source: ACTA ASTRONAUTICA, vol. 228, pp. 246-252

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