Description
Objective:The key objective of this activity will be the investigation of the demise behaviour of different optical communicationterminals for current and future applications on-board satcom platforms in LEO (e.g. future constellations) and therefore the development of breadboard of the design for demise solutions and technologies identified to reduce the on-ground casualty risks associated with these elements.Targeted Improvements:Reduce by an order of magnitude the casualty risk of the laser communication terminal after deorbiting to a probability of below 10e-4.Description:The uncertainties associated with the demise behaviour of opticalcommunication terminals on-board future satcoms in LEO, is an issue to be tackled in the near-term, in order to ensure the compliance of these platforms with the on-ground casualty risk requirements through an uncontrolled re-entry, and therefore to avoid an increase of mass, complexity and costs of the system (e.g. additional propellant, additional structures) as well as complexity and costsof the entire mission (e.g. impact on disposal operations, impact on launcher selection), which might be particularly significant in the case of satcom constellation in LEO. An optical terminal marketable as "designed to demise" will provide additional a competitive advantage when selecting parts for larger systems. Recent activities have already provided some information related with the on-ground risks associated with optical instrumentations and some design for demise solutions at system level are currently under investigation (e.g. containment techniques, un-demisable joints) to reduce the system casualty area. This activity will focus on the specific case of optical communication terminals, considering the following engineering tasks:1. Identify the critical parts (e.g. optics) and events (e.g. fragmentation process) characterising the demiseprocess of optical communication terminals2. Perform demise tests on equipment/unknown materials to validate and improve the accuracy of thesimulations as well as propose a design for demise solutions.3. Develop breadboard of the design for demise techniques and demisable technologies identified to addressthe critical aspects previously identified, for implementation in the optical communication terminals of maininterest for satcom in LEO.