Uwe,
The problem is that at the altitudes in question (1000-1400km), there's so
little atmosphere that even with very big drag devices, you might be still
be talking about dozens or hundreds of years for deorbit. Passive drag
devices don't really work well at those altitudes. And when they do get
lower, now your collision cross sectional area is huge.
~Jon
On Wed, Dec 13, 2017 at 4:01 AM, Uwe Klein <uwe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Am 13.12.2017 um 07:46 schrieb Monroe L. King Jr.:
I had an idea about deorbiting if you cover part of the satellite with a
product that will out-gas when struck with a relatively powerful laser.
You could deorbit them with a satellite in a higher orbit hitting it
with that laser.
Use that out-gassing as propulsion.
use a flimsy balloon shell to blow up with the gas.
Deorbit by increased drag.
How big could one enlarge the aerodynamic aperture
of a cube sat with a gram or two of plastic foil?
How much gas do you need to fill for a mbar or three?
