The demise of space debris (e.g. upper stages, satellites, their components) re-entering the atmosphere results in emissions into the atmosphere. Typically, most of the re-entering object mass does not survive the atmospheric transit and ends up being released into the atmosphere under gaseous or particulate forms. Depending on the nature and material composition of reentry debris, a wide range of re-entry gases and particles are released. Some are chemically active, in particular ozone destroying, or/and radiatively active (i.e. climate forcers).

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Activity with GSTP and RUAG, Austria, to develop a thermal insulation suitable for planetary landers and rover.

An extensive trade-off of on various materials was carried out and supported by full material characterisation tests. Two insulation concepts were selected: foam and a gas gap.

The technical solutions are light weight, flexible and can be applied directly on the external/internal walls, wrapped around electrical cables and to mechanisms

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Background and justification:

The design of new ablator materials is currently performed by testing in an ad-hoc manner. The components are mixed together in the designed manner, and the material is then tested to find the bulk properties. If the bulk properties do not meet the required specifications, a modified mixture is developed and tested until the requirements are met. This approach leads to a very large effort to develop/modify a material towards a specific (new) mission environment.

A shock attenuation device improving the filtering efficiency of the current shock attenuator devices has been developed keeping the load capability domain, the stiffness linearity and r