The long-term interaction of the Italian satellites abandoned in GEO with the orbital debris environment

A study was carried out in order to investigate and quantify the long-term environmental impact of the abandoned satellites on the geosynchronous region. As they were all successfully passivated, eliminating the possibility of future explosions, the only significant detrimental effect on the environment might derive from catastrophic collisions with other sizable space objects. However, the probability of such events was calculated to be extremely low, of the order of 10-7 in one century.