CUBESATS: PAVING THE WAY TOWARDS AN EFFECTIVE RELIABILITY – ORIENTED APPROACH

CubeSats enable the development of a new Space economy towards a Space that is now open and accessible to all kinds of activities, industries and even end-users. However, the failure rate of these satellites is high enough to significantly contribute to the Low-Earth Orbit congestion. This issue can be addressed with a gradual decrease of the formation rate of new debris, while removing the existing one, to prevent future collisions. To ensure a long-term sustainability in Space, a Design for Reliability approach on the new generation of CubeSats could enable a safe and effective maintenance in LEO. Reliability procedures applied from the beginning of the design process can significantly improve the mission success rates.