Orbital performance of small satellite deorbiting kit based on electrodynamic tape/tethers

Current plans for large LEO constellations envisage the launch and the transit of thousands of small-size satellites in clustered orbits. As recommended by international guidelines, spacecraft shall implement post mission disposal strategies, to mitigate the hazard they pose on the space debris environment. In particular, all new satellites in LEO are expected to deorbit within 25 years from their end of life. Among the proposed deorbiting technologies, electrodynamic tethers appear to be a promising and reliable option; in this context the European Commission is currently funding the project E.T.PACK – Electrodynamic Tether Technology for Passive Consumable-less Deorbit Kit in the framework of the H2020 Future Emerging Technologies FET Open program. The project focuses on the design of a disposal kit for LEO satellites, that can be activated at spacecraft end of life to perform autonomous re-entry. In this work we investigated the orbital performance of the proposed disposal kit as a function of host spacecraft mass and operational orbit. It is shown that the electrodynamic tether option can be attractive compared to deorbit systems based on traditional (e.g., chemical propulsion) and other alternatives (e.g., neutral-drag sails).