Design and Development of a CubeSat De-Orbit Device

1. Design and Development of a CubeSat De-Orbit Device

2. Team Members • An Kim • CianBranco • David Warner • Edwin Billips • Langston Lewis • Thomas Work • Mackenzie Webb • Benjamin Cawrse (CS) • Jason Harris (TCC)

3. Introduction • Thousands of man made object in earth orbit (mostly junk). • Debris can be a serious hazard to satellites. • A paint flake threatened the Space Shuttle; dead Russian Satellite disabled an Iridium satellite

4. Debris in Earth’s Orbit

5. Introduction • CubeSats are a common picosatellites used by universities and institutions for research in space. • Pending international treaty will require future launch stages and LEO satellites to deorbit within 25 years of mission completion. • Objective: design and test a de-orbit system to de-orbit CubeSats within 25 years of mission completion.

6. Objectives • Demonstrate commercial viability • Prove it is a robust and viable system • Achieve these objectives with a minimum cost • Orbital demonstrator • Suborbital flight • High altitude balloon flight

7. Objectives • Demonstrate commercial viability • Prove it is a robust and viable system • Achieve these objectives with a minimum cost • Orbital demonstrator • Suborbital flight • High altitude balloon flight

8. RockSat-X Program • The RockSat-X program out of Wallops Flight Facility is currently considered the best option for our test flight • RockSat-X utilizes the Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket • The sounding rocket will reach apogee at approximately 160 km altitude from the Earth.

9. Advantages of RockSat-X • 300 seconds of microgravity flight • Power and telemetry on deck provided for timing devices, communication between ground and payload, and data storage • Direct access to orbital space after second stage burn-out when the skin of the sounding rocket is ejected. • Adequate space and weight capacity available to mount the deployment device and necessary telemetry for the mission of our CubeSat