Development of a Payload Dispersion and Contamination Analysis Tool for the Vega Maiden Flight

The ESA VEGA program started back in the 90’s, motivated by the rising market of micro/mini-satellites, mainly driven by institutional programs, which motivated the development of a dedicated launch vehicle. The VEGA Qualification Flight is currently scheduled to take place by the end of 2010 and several payloads (PLs) will be released in orbit including: LARES satellite, ALMASat-1 and nine Cubsat provided by the ESA Education Office. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the VEGA Integrated Project Team (IPT) decided to carry out a payloads separation analysis and to take advantage of the support from the University of Bologna ALMASat-1 team. At the University of Bologna, a MATLAB/Simulink-based payload dispersion and contamination simulator was then implemented in order to study possible payload collisions and pollution-contaminations.