Drag Sail Success! This Satellite Won't Turn Into Space Junk

By Nancy Atkinson - February 02, 2023 11:04 AM UTC | Space Exploration

The European Space Agency successfully tested a solar-sail-type device to speed up the deorbit time for a used cubesat carrier in Earth orbit. The so-called breaking sail, the Drag A ugmentation Deo rbiting System (ADEO) was deployed from an ION satellite carrier in late December 2022. Engineers estimate the sail will reduce the time it takes for the carrier to reenter Earth's atmosphere from 4-5 years to approximately 15 months.

The sail is one of many ideas and efforts to reduce space junk in Earth orbit.

"We want to establish a zero debris policy, which means if you bring a spacecraft into orbit you have to remove it," said Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General.

Last year, China successfully deployed a similar sail from a Long March 2 rocket.

ESA says the sail provides a passive method of deorbiting by increasing the atmospheric surface drag effect and causing an accelerated decay in the satellite's orbital altitude. "The satellite will eventually burn-up in the atmosphere, providing a quicker, residue-free method of disposal."

This test was the final in-flight qualification flight needed to provide the technological proof-of-concept. A smaller 2.5 square meter sail was fitted onto the upper stage of the Electron launch vehicle in 2018. Previously, the ADEO sail was tested on several parabolic flights from 2019 to 2022. This larger orbital version was deployed from the Italian space company D-ORBIT's ION Satellite Carrier, which carries and deploys cubesats and weighs 160 kg (350 lb).

The sail membrane has a surface area of 3.6 square meters and is made of an aluminum-coated polyamide. It was packed inside an impressively small container, 10 x 10 x 10 cm. ESA says the sail's size can be scaled up for medium and large size satellites, or multiple sails can be used on larger pieces such as an upper rocket stage. Various sizes could be tailor-made, depending on the initial orbit, satellite mass and required de-orbiting time. The largest variation could be as large as 100 square meters, which could take up to 45 mins to deploy. The smallest sail available is just 3.5 square meters and deploy in just 0.8 seconds.

For the orbital test, cameras on ION captured the deployment of ADEO. ESA determined the satellite carrier immediately slowed to begin its deorbit process.

Read more about the test on ESA's website.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com