Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004adspr..34.1029p&link_type=abstract
Advances in Space Research, Volume 34, Issue 5, p. 1029-1037.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Space Debris, Bepposax
Scientific paper
The X-ray astronomy satellite BeppoSAX (Satellite per Astronomia X, ``Beppo'' in honor of Giuseppe Occhialini), is a project of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) with the participation of the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programs (NIVR). BeppoSAX was launched by an Atlas G-Centaur directly into a circular 600 km orbit at 3.9° inclination on April 30, 1996. The satellite is a three axis stabilized spacecraft with a total mass of about 1400 kg and main dimensions in flight configuration of about 2450 mm×8980 mm×3650 mm. The current (September 21, 2002) flight altitude is about 435 km and its uncontrolled re-entry is predicted late in 2002, or in 2003, with 26 kg of hydrazine on board that could not be vented or used for controlled re-entry due to the gyro package's total failure. Due to the relatively high mass of BeppoSAX, it must be expected that parts of the satellite will survive the re-entry into the Earth atmosphere. The Italian Space Agency has committed a study to analyse of the destructive phase of the uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry by means of a dedicated European software tool (SCARAB). The expected outputs will be used in order to determine how much of the spacecraft and how many fragments of it will reach the ground on the equatorial earth zone. This paper will address the peculiarities of the spacecraft's initial status, its risks at end of life, and the SCARAB modeling as well as its six dimension flight dynamics re-entry analysis results also in terms of the destruction history tree. Consideration will be made of the ground dispersion and casualty area due to the very restricted equatorial zone impacted.
Anselmo Luciano
Lips T.
Portelli Claudio
Salotti Luca
Tramutola A.
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