Manufacturers call this Design for Demise (D4D), an initiative the European Space Agency (ESA) is pushing as part of an effort to minimize space junk. .
This is one such demonstration, provided by ESA in partnership with Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace, who are proving that their Solar Array Drive Module (that is, a structural bit of machinery that turns the solar panels to always face the Sun) will never reach the ground should it reenter the atmosphere. In the video below, they use a plasma wind tunnel to simulate the conditions of reentry, and the results speak for themselves.Â