FOR satellites launching to orbits with an altitude above 600 km, United Nations (UN) guidelines (ie, the European Code of

Conduct for Space Debris Mitigation) allow a maximum of 25 years in orbit after the end of operational phase [1]. A typical satellite, if launched into an orbit with an altitude of about 300 km, will survive in orbit for about 60 days [2]. As an example, the International Space Station (ISS) is in such an orbit and therefore needs to fire positioning thrusters every 30 days to maintain altitude [2]. At 650 km, it takes 25–40 years before the satellite reenters the atmosphere, and at 950 km, it may take as long as up to 1000 years [2], thus the UN restriction of 25 years imposes severe constraints on the need for a deorbit strategy. To comply with the UN guidelines, it is recommended by NASA and ESA to devise a so-called active debris removal (ADR) system on satellites [2, 3]. In this way, the objectives of the ADR systems are, respectively, to obtain a reduction in postdecommissioning orbital lifetime for satellites that carry a payload of maximum 100 kg and to ensure reentry of a prescribed accuracy. In most cases, the ADR is obtained using the satellites’ positioning thrusters [4], which, however, is relatively expensive and uncertain because the satellite may be degraded. Consequently, a successful development of an alternative, deployable ADR system concept could be beneficial for many institutional spacecraft as well as for commercial spacecraft in low-Earth-orbit (LEO) applications. The aim here is to tradeoff and design a system to allow optimal spacecraft deorbit strategies. In an attempt to achieve this, methods and concepts addressing ADR alternatives to the position thrusters have been studied and developed already [1, 4–11], and new, complementary related technology studies have been discussed within NASA and ESA recently, including guidance, navigation, and control subsystems (GNC) aspects [8]. Common for most of these alternatives is that the acceleration in deorbiting time is sought by increasing the area of the satellite in relation to its mass (ie, altering the ballistic coefficient due to aerodynamic effects)[2]. This increase in area will cause increased drag and decrease the orbiting speed of the satellite, hence causing it to deorbit. The basic idea uses the fact that the atmosphere of the Earth does not stop abruptly at some altitude but gradually thins