Assessment of the ATV-1 Re-Entry Observation Campaign for Future Re-Entry Missions

This paper summarizes the midterm results of the currently ongoing ESA study “Assessment of the ATV-1 Reentry Observation Campaign for Future Re-entry Missions”. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the data obtained during a joint ESA/NASA airborne observation campaign of the destructive re-entry of ATV-1 Jules Verne which occurred on September 29, 2008. The presented results are focused on spectroscopic fragment characterization(material identification), frame-by-frame fragment tracking(manual and automatic) for various video recordings, 3D triangulation of the tracked fragments, and fragment propagation until complete demise or ground impact, including the actual size and location of the ATV-1 debris footprint. Fragment propagation analyses comprise also the derivation of aerodynamic fragment properties and potential delta velocities. These parameters are of high importance for the re-entry safety analysis for ATV-2 Johannes Kepler.