Space circular economy: planned experimental approaches for spacecraft solar arrays

Abstract The space industry aims to promote economic growth while ensuring a sustainable use of space. The sustainability objectives of space often refer to the cleaning of space debris via Active Debris Removal missions. Those solutions, despite being needed, are unsustainable as they still follow a linear economic model, and present the risk of being used as the "Space Greenwashing". Space Circular Economy permits giving value to space debris, as they will be considered as material resources. It is a long-term objective that must be investigated in tandem with ADR and in-space manufacturing and assembly. Spacecraft solar panels are good candidates for pilot investigations of in-orbit circular concepts. The results of a first study on the thermal degradation behavior of the solar cell encapsulant, WACKER® RTV-S 691, show great potential for further investigation of thermal delamination processes applied to spacecraft solar panels. This paper aims to propose an experimental approach to investigate the use of solar radiation to delaminate and to anneal spacecraft solar cells.