WITH THE DISPOSAL OF DEMETER AND ESSAIM SATELLITES, CNES GIVES AN EXAMPLE OF FRENCH SPACE ACT COMPLIANCE

摘要

The French Space Act relating to space operations came into force in France on the 10th December 2010. For the disposal of satellites already in orbit at this date, technical regulation requires to seek the best possible strategy. At the end of 2010 / beginning of 2011, CNES retired DEMETER and ESSAIM microsatellites which belonged to the MYRIADE family designed by CNES. With these disposals, CNES wanted to give an example of French Space Act compliance. This paper presents the DEMETER and ESSAIM missions, the MYRIADE family, the disposal issues, the deorbitation of the ESSAIM swarm, the complete depletion of the DEMETER fuel tank, the electrical passivations and the lessons learnt