ATD3 overview

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More than 50 participants gathered during two days in Bordeaux for a successful meeting on space debris reentry in the frame of Europe endeavour for clean space

 

The Workshop on AeroThermoDynamics and Design for Demise ([1] [2] [3]), managed by ESA and CNES, and locally organized by the HyFAR-ARA association, was hosted this year in Bordeaux (France).

During two days (27-28 october 2022), over 50 participants from more than 10 countries have presented their work to their peers.

The 20 presentations (see full program here [3]) have addressed many topics such as fluid flow simulations either in rarefied or continuum regime, ground testing, space debris management with laser technology, reentry demise analysis tools development, computer alogorithms, materials ablation, etc…

HyFAR-ARA members actively contributed to these exchanges. Two presentations were effectively included in the event agenda :

  • Coupled fluid / thermal computation of ablating graphite material using nonequilibrium chemistry during atmospheric entry by Vivien LORIDAN (CEA)
  • Overview of the recent studies performed at CEA-CESTA on rarefied flow simulation and modelling by Damien TOUSSAINT (CEA)

Several sessions have also been devoted to the test case that is proposed to participants at each edition of the workshop. This year the subject was the rebuilding of a ring/cylinder interference experiment performed in Von Karman Institute wind tunnel.

 

inside Ellul aula

inside Ellul aula

 

Recent events have highlighted, if it were still necessary, how acute this problem is. In fact, on November 4th a China’s Long March uncontroled rocket dived off the coasts of Mexico, nearly missing populated areas and triggering emergency alerts over the world throughout his path until final impact in the Pacific Ocean ([4] [5] [6] [7]).

 

Long March alledged final trajectory (source Twitter , November 4th 2022).

 

[1] https://www.hyfar-ara.org/en/atd3-workshop-2022/

[2] https://www.hyfar-ara.org/en/atd3-workshop-2022-2/

[3] https://indico.esa.int/event/415/

[4] https://www.numerama.com/sciences/1171150-la-fusee-chinoise-est-tombee-dans-le-pacifique-mais-ne-nous-rejouissons-pas-trop-vite.html

[5] https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2022/11/chinas-wayward-rocket-has-disintegrated-over-the-pacific-ocean/

[6] https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1588516833237286914

[7] https://www.space.com/china-long-march-5b-rocket-falls-into-pacific-ocean