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(2025 February 1) Space debris demise in the atmosphere: What are the impacts in the era of mega-constellations?

  • 1.  (2025 February 1) Space debris demise in the atmosphere: What are the impacts in the era of mega-constellations?

    Posted 9 days ago

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    AIAA Los Angeles Section Town Hall Meeting 2/1

    (A hybrid event: In-person and online attendance)

    Saturday, February 1, 2025, 11 AM PST (GMT -0800) (U.S. and Canada)

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    Feb 01

    (2/1) Space debris demise in the atmosphere: What are the impacts in the era of mega-constellations?

    (2025 February 1) Space debris demise in the atmosphere: What are the impacts in the era of mega-constellations?

    Presenter / Speaker:
    José P. Ferreira
    Ph.D. candidate | M.Sc., P.Eng.
    NASA FINESST & Fulbright fellow
    Department of Astronautical Engineering
    Viterbi School of Engineering
    University of Southern California

    (The speaker will present in person.)

    Lawndale Library (Meeting Room)
    14615 Burin Ave, Lawndale, CA 90260
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    Virtual location

    You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.

    Feb 01, 2025 11:00am PT - Feb 01, 2025 12:40pm PT

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    Disclaimer: The views of the speakers do not represent the views of AIAA or the AIAA Los Angeles Section.

    Space debris demise in the atmosphere: What are the impacts in the era of mega-constellations?

    The number of anthropogenic objects orbiting the Earth has been increasing in an unconstrained manner, threatening the sustainable access to space. This trend is expected to continue with ongoing plans for large constellations of small satellites. While it is widely understood that most pieces of debris will completely burn up during reentry, the impact on Earth's atmosphere is not fully understood and the long-term consequences remain unknown. The polluting potential encompasses fluctuations in radiative forcing, impacts in ice nucleation, cloud condensation, and stratospheric ozone concentrations.

    An assessment of high-altitude atmospheric injection of anthropogenic objects reentering from low-Earth orbit is performed resorting to empirical data so as to establish forecasts driving the accumulation of reentry byproducts in the mesosphere. The influx and demise of chemical species such as Aluminum, which is dominant in aerospace structures, is further investigated using molecular dynamics simulations. The long-term accumulation and particle size distribution of reentry byproducts is estimated.

    José P. Ferreira

    Ph.D. candidate | M.Sc., P.Eng.

    NASA FINESST & Fulbright fellow

    Department of Astronautical Engineering

    Viterbi School of Engineering

    University of Southern California

    José Pedro Ferreira is a Fulbright and NASA doctoral fellow pursuing a doctorate in Astronautical Engineering at USC where he studies the environmental impacts of spacecraft demise in the atmosphere.

    He is experienced in aerospace engineering, having served as the lead systems engineer for an Earth observation small satellite, and in aerodynamics, having been an university lecturer in aeronautics and conducted research at NASA Ames and TU Delft.

    José served as a delegate in the 57th and 58th Scientific and Technical Subcommittees of the UN COPUOS, is the recipient of the ESA Space for Sustainability award in 2023, and the managing editor for the 2024 special issue of the Journal of Space Safety Engineering. He is also an honoree of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Portugal class of 2024. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American, CBC/Radio-Canada, RTP Portugal, and Deutschlandfunk radio.

    [AIAA Los Angeles Section], [contact@aiaa-lalv.org], [https://www.aiaa-lalv.org]



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