The German Center for Aviation and Astronautics in Cologne showed on video how the components of a spacecraft melt and burn if it enters the dense layers of the atmosphere uncontrollably at speed. The experiment was carried out in a plasma wind tunnel, the press service of the European Space Agency writes.
In such a chamber, due to electromagnetic heating, the gas is brought to a plasma state and then accelerated to several kilometers per second. An object entering the earth’s atmosphere from space is located in approximately such harsh conditions.
The object for the experiment was chosen SADM – a solar battery control mechanism that keeps the panels of the spacecraft pointed at the Sun. This, according to the agency, “is one of the most bulky elements on board a typical satellite.”
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Experiments like these are allowing ESA to develop technologies and methods to ensure that future LEO satellites will be designed in accordance with the D4D (Design for Demise) concept, that is, when a de-orbiting vehicle burns up, rather than falling debris on Earth.
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