DEORBIT

Million pieces of space debris and thousands of out-of-life satellites are orbiting Earth, dating back to Sputnik-1 in 1957. As more satellites are launched every year, collisions are becoming increasingly likely and generate new debris. Therefore active post-mission disposal of space structures will have an increased importance in the future in order to keep the earth orbit in an acceptable condition for the safe operation of manned and un-manned missions.

The best possibility for avoiding more space debris is to give the satellite the ability to maneuver into a re-entry trajectory at end of life to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere within 25 years. The purpose of the project is to assess the feasibility of a nanosatellite mission for in-orbit demonstration of de-orbiting mechanisms as a measure to mitigate space debris and to validate advanced telecommunications and on-board processing subsystems including optical communications.

Coordinator

MAGNA STEYR Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG

Project partner

TU Graz - Graz University of Technology

MAGNA STEYR Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co KG
Liebenauer Hauptstrasse 317
A-8041 Graz
Web: www.magna.com