Invited Talk on the Occasion of the Engineer’s Day – From MV to Spaceflight: Satellite Re-entry and the Future of Space Sustainability

National Engineers’ Day commemorates the legacy of Sir M. Visvesvaraya, whose vision and engineering leadership helped lay foundations for India’s technological development. From civil infrastructure and water resource management to advanced aerospace systems, India’s engineering journey has been characterised by the pursuit of innovation that delivers enduring societal value. As India extends its capabilities in space exploration, satellite services, human spaceflight, and a growing commercial space sector, attention is increasingly turning to the sustainability of space activities across the entire lifecycle of a spacecraft, including its final return to Earth.
This seminar examines the end-of-life phase of satellites, focusing on the competing concepts of design for demise and design for recovery during atmospheric re-entry. While these approaches have traditionally been evaluated in terms of ground safety and debris mitigation, recent studies have raised important questions regarding the introduction of metallic oxides and other compounds into atmospheric regions where they are not normally present. Drawing on observations of spacecraft re-entries and current research into demise physics, material response, and environmental impacts, the presentation will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable spacecraft disposal. In doing so, it considers how future spacecraft design and operations may contribute to a responsible and enduring spacefaring future for India and the global community.

Speaker : Prof. David Buttsworth

Biography ::
Professor David Buttsworth is Professor of Thermofluids Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland, where he leads the Hypersonics and Rocketry Group within the Institute for Space, Defence and Advanced Technologies. He is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, from which he holds a BE (Hons) and a PhD on shock-induced mixing and combustion in scramjets. He designed and built the TUSQ hypersonic wind tunnel, a key Australian facility for re-entry and hypersonic ground testing, and has led airborne optical observation campaigns of spacecraft re-entry, including the Hayabusa capsule return. He currently leads Australian Research Council-funded research on the dispersion and demise of spacecraft components during atmospheric re-entry. He is a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Prof. Buttsworth is a Fellow of the Society for Shock Wave Research