Dispersion of spacecraft components during re-entry

旧卫星的破坏性再入轨道被设计成使再入后残留的碎片不会对地球造成伤害。然而，轨道物体质量的急剧增加已经超过了在预测危险撞击区域方面的改进。该项目旨在开发研究高超声速流动中物体分离所需的实验和理论方法，以便更好地预测重新进入空间物体的碎片扩散情况。将进行新的高超声速风洞实验、建模和计算模拟，以加强我们对航天器部件在再入过程中如何分散的理解和预测。

Destructive re-entry trajectories for used satellites are designed so debris remaining after re-entry falls harmlessly to the Earth. However, the dramatic increase in the mass of orbiting objects has outpaced improvements in predicting hazardous impact zones. This project aims to develop the experimental and theoretical methods needed to study separation of objects in hypersonic flow in order to better predict the dispersion of debris from re-entering space objects. New hypersonic wind tunnel experiments, modelling, and computational simulations will be performed to enhance our understanding and improve predictions of how spacecraft components are dispersed during re-entry.