Fraunhofer FHR has developed new methods to precisely determine the inherent rotation of damaged satellites – which will help support future de-orbiting missions, i.e., deliberately destructive re-entries of defective satellites into the atmosphere.

It is important to be able to control damaged satellites as, if they are uncontrolled, they present a hazard to all space travel. Since April 2012, one of the largest space vehicles – the European environmental satellite ENVISAT – has been orbiting the earth, unable to maneuver. ESA is therefore currently looking for solutions to move ENVISAT into a lower orbit and to allow it to burn up in the earth‘s atmosphere in a controlled manner. This de-orbiting mission will only be successful if the satellite’s inherent rotation can be correctly determined beforehand.

The research team at Fraunhofer FHR will support future de-orbiting missions by the space observation radar TIRA. The raw radar data concerning ENVISAT and recorded by TIRA will be processed and evaluated using the unique methods developed at Fraunhofer FHR. This will allow the orientation and inherent rotation of space objects to be analyzed, a durable forecast to be made thereof, and potential external damage to satellites to be investigated efficiently.