Why satellites of the future will be built to burn

Published April 22, 2019 This content is archived.

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An article on Hackaday about designing satellites that are robust enough to survive years in the space environment while at the same time remaining just fragile enough to completely burn up during reentry, and claims by SpaceX that they’ve replaced components with versions they can guarantee won’t survive reentry, interviews John Crassidis, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

He said that he believes the claims are a bit too bold: “Anything can come through the atmosphere if you hit at just the right angle. If they’re guaranteeing it’s not going to cause an issue, then I’m going to have to call BS on it.”

Read the story here.