DragEN - A DragSail for Small Spacecraft

Saber Astronautics has the long term vision that for every satellite launched to LEO, two objects (the main payload and a piece of existing space debris) should be brought back to Earth. The development of a cheap, compact, re-deployable drag sail or electrodynamic tether is a critical enabler to this vision, allowing for the controlled deorbit, rendezvous and docking and ultimate re-entry of both objects.The DragEN (Deployable for Recovery through Atmospheric Gravity ENtry) is a very simple, highly versatile spacecraft tether deployer used for responsible de-orbit at the end of a satellite mission. DragEN is compact andnbsp;cost-effective, currently fitting picosatellites but can scale to microsatellite missions.nbsp; With de-orbit times as low as 15 days DragEN is an elegant solution compared to conventional de-orbiting systems currently on the market.