European Space Agency mission will intentionally burn next satellite to collect reentry data

Over 36,000 tracked objects are currently orbiting Earth as space debris

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In a nutshell: The European Space Agency aims to reduce the amount of space junk orbiting the planet through its Zero Debris approach, with a deadline set for 2030. Studying satellite reentries will help ESA achieve this goal and lead to more environmentally friendly spacecraft designs in the future.

The ESA is preparing to launch a satellite mission called DRACO in 2027 to study what happens when satellites burn up as they reenter Earth's atmosphere. The mission is part of the ESA's Zero Debris approach, which aims to stop the creation of new space debris by 2030. By studying how satellites break up, ESA hopes to design future satellites that fully disintegrate during reentry.

Over the past 70 years, approximately 10,000 satellites and rocket parts have come back to Earth. However, scientists still do not fully understand how satellites break apart during this process.

The DRACO satellite, which will not have any propulsion or navigation systems, will rely on the steering capabilities of the rocket it is launched with to align itself for a swift reentry. About the size of a washing machine and weighing 200 kg, DRACO will carry 200 sensors and four cameras to record data as it burns up. A special 40 cm capsule inside DRACO will survive reentry and transmit the collected data before splashing down in the ocean.

The satellite will gather a wide range of information, including data about extreme temperatures experienced during burn-up, the surrounding pressure during reentry, and the strain on various parts of the satellite as it breaks apart. The four cameras will capture footage of the satellite's destruction, while the capsule will measure the tremendous forces of reentry. Data will also be collected on byproducts created during the breakup process to assess their effects on the atmosphere.

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This data cannot be obtained through ground testing, as wind tunnel experiments are not able to fully recreate the extreme forces and speeds of atmospheric reentry. Ultimately, the data collected will help improve computer models of satellite reentry and lead to more zero-debris technologies.

"Draco will get us out of the chicken-and-egg loop and create a different data set to calibrate our systems and models, and will advance the implementation of zero-debris technologies in the near future," said Tim Flohrer, Head of Space Debris Office at ESA.

DRACO's mission will last only about 12 hours. It will reach a maximum altitude of 1,000 km before reentering the atmosphere over an uninhabited ocean area.

ESA has awarded a contract to the technology company Deimos to develop the satellite. The mission faces some technical challenges, such as ensuring that the data capsule can deploy its parachute while potentially spinning rapidly. Building an indestructible capsule also presents difficulties, according to Stijn Lemmens, DRACO project manager in the ESA Space Debris Office.

It "must be able to withstand the forces of the reentry, as well as being capable of protecting a computer system throughout the violent destruction process while still connected to the sensors, the cabling spreading out from it like an octopus," Lemmens said.

Another challenge is that scientists will only have about 20 minutes to transmit the data from the capsule to a geostationary satellite before it hits the water.

Only once before, in 2013, did the ESA attempt to observe a reentry from inside a spacecraft, using a camera mounted within an ISS cargo ferry. The DRACO mission will represent a much larger step in reentry science.