Demise and Survivability Criteria for Spacecraft Design Optimization

In a period where the evolution of the space environment is causing increasing concerns for the future of space exploitation and sustainability, the design for demise philosophy has gained an increased interest. However, satellites designed for demise still have to survive the space environment polluted by space debris. Within this context we are developing a model to evaluate the effect of preliminary design choices on the survivability and on the demise of a spacecraft configuration. Considering common spacecraft components such as tanks and batteries, a set of maps are presented, which shows the variation of survivability and demise criteria as function of the component geometry and material. Furthermore, a preliminary multi-objective optimization is performed to evaluate a simple spacecraft configuration and define an optimal design according to the demise and the survivability criteria.