Since decades, there has been more space debris in orbit than operational satellites. While in the beginning, the risk posed by space debris was unclear, it has now become a reality for
any space operator, with mitigation actions required both in the short and in the long-term.

The presentation will start by discussing the status of the debris environment and introduce the main principles of space debris mitigation, with a specific focus on collision avoidance, in-orbit breakups and post-mission disposal. For each of these topics, the recommended mitigation measures will be presented, together with the current level of adoptions and open research topics.

Finally, the topic of sustainability applied to space mission will be presented together with an overview of the rationale and practical implementation of the new Zero Debris approach adopted by ESA.

Speaker:
Francesca Letizia is a Space Debris Mitigation and Re-entry Safety Engineer within ESA's Independent Safety Office, where she has been involved in the preparation of a new space debris mitigation standard following ESA's Zero Debris approach. She is also part of ESA’s delegation to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). Previously, Francesca was a Space Debris Engineer at ESA Space Debris Office, where her main tasks involved the assessment of general compliance to space debris mitigation guidelines and the development of a space debris index to rank the criticality of different missions in terms of the impact on the space debris environment. Before that, Francesca worked as a Mission Analysis Engineer at OHB System AG in Bremen, where her main tasks were related to tools and procedures for missions with electric propulsion. This involved the development of tools for the optimisation of low-thrust trajectories and the definition of operational baselines for the transfers, including collision avoidance strategies. Francesca hold a PhD from the University of Southampton where she graduated with a thesis on a model for space debris clouds evolution and worked on the development of a tool to assess the compliance with planetary protection guidelines.

Join the event online at the following link ↗

14.12.2023