DEORBIX:
clear orbit
Low Earth orbit is more crowded than ever: obsolete satellites, rocket bodies, and crash fragments sit alongside thousands of operational satellites. Each collision produces new fragments, which can lead to a chain effect (Kessler syndrome). DEORBIX develops systems that destroy satellites not by disintegrating them, but by lowering them into the atmosphere and burning them in a controlled manner.
Why?
Not to tear apart
burn
Exploding or crashing a satellite in orbit would shatter it into hundreds of new pieces of junk. The permanent solution is to lower the object low enough to allow it to burn up under the friction of the atmosphere. Regulators are also in this direction: The US FCC stipulated that low-orbit satellites should be deorbited within 5 years after the end of the mission in 2022, and ESA adopted the "Zero Debris" approach.
Systems
three piece
cleaning chain
The cheapest space debris is garbage that never occurs. That's why the first two products of DEORBIX are installed before the satellite is launched; The third is to capture ownerless or malfunctioning objects in orbit.
drift sail
A folded membrane that attaches to CubeSats and small satellites. It opens when the mission is over, enlarging the satellite's surface area tens of times; the thin air in the upper atmosphere would sink and burn it within a few years rather than decades, or within months in low orbit. Even if the satellite fails, it turns on automatically with a timer.
docking plate
Passive plate screwed onto the body of the satellite before launch: magnetic capture surface, optical targets and mechanical handle. It allows a tugboat to safely hold the failed satellite years later. The mass and cost impact is small.
Catcher tug (concept)
A service vehicle that approaches the target, maps its rotation, and docks to the plate or body with a robotic arm. By lowering the perigee, it puts the object into guided atmospheric entry into the ocean wilderness (Point Nemo); unburned parts fall away from people.
Engineering approach
Orbital lifetime is calculated from the atmospheric density model and solar activity; The sail size is chosen based on the mass-to-area ratio of the satellite. Designs will be verified with compatibility tools such as ESA's DRAMA and CNES's STELA, and combustion analysis will be carried out to ensure that debris does not pose a risk on the ground.
The same approach we used on the FRAGWATT applies here: power electronics, embedded firmware, thermal model and reliable parts. Radiation-resistant component selection and fault tolerance for space is an additional layer.