Above is our first SolidWorks model, a pyramidal frustum with flaps that open up to both increase surface area and stability during re-entry. One of the main issues of design for demise is how difficult it is to simulate re-entry conditions on Earth. There are three main things that make design for demise difficult to implement; 1. Re-entry processes such as fragmentation have not been fully understood and therefore is not possible to simulate at this time, 2. Simulating the conditions of low earth orbit re-entry on the ground is extremely difficult and costly, and 3. The dynamics of re-entering fragments is not fully understood and very difficult to simulate. This design helps to mitigate the effects of the third challenge. By having our design orient itself, the dynamics of the part can then be more accurately simulated.

Of course, all great ideas start from a basic sketch. Building off of an initial idea of a cube that could open, the pyramid shape was born. Cubes would be chaotic in re-entry, tumbling so fast that their dynamics would be near impossible to simulate. Pyramids on the other hand have a center of gravity ahead of the center of pressure, creating a restoring moment that should orient the part. The wings should also help with this as they further move the center of pressure back.

Also this week, we have been working diligently on our Preliminary Design Report (PDR). The PDR is a comprehensive document to be presented to our liaisons at Honeywell. The paper contains everything we have done so far as a team formatted into one digestible paper.

Furthermore, we have developed the end goal of our project a little further. Instead of creating one model for one scenario, we would like to develop multiple models for multiple scenarios and then use those models to create a machine learning model utilizing Kriging. We believe this is the best way to approach our solution, as one model does not nearly cover all of the possible variables of satellite missions. What if the satellite is made of steel? Aluminum? What if it is entering from geostationary orbit rather than low earth orbit? These are all variables we would like to account for in the model we develop.