SABER ASTRONAUTICS, LLC — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z8

SABER ASTRONAUTICS, LLC — SBIR Phase I award from National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Amount
$124,508
Agency
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Program / Phase
SBIR · Phase I
Topic
Z8
Solicitation
SBIR_20_P1
NAICS
Place of performance
CO
Period
2020-07-31 → 2021-03-01

Description

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.