Astrobrake - Drag Sail

Astrobrake-S is an autonomous deorbiting system designed by Gama to ensure safe, compliant, and cost-effective satellite disposal. It deploys a 2.2 m² polyimide drag sail at the end of a mission to passively accelerate atmospheric reentry, guaranteeing deorbit in less than five years for orbits up to 800 km.

The device is fully independent, requiring no power, fuel, or telemetry from the host spacecraft. Through a simple two-wire interface or an internal watchdog timer, Astrobrake-S can autonomously trigger deployment even if the satellite is non-responsive, ensuring compliance with ESA, FCC, and other international debris mitigation regulations.

With a mass under 900 g and a stowed volume of 0.75U, integration is simple and flexible. Operators can configure multiple units to match satellite mass or redundancy requirements. The module is built to GEVS (GSFC-STD-7000B) and ECSS standards and maintains NF EN ISO 14644-1 (ISO 8) cleanliness compliance.

After the successful delivery and qualification of Gen0, Gama is now developing Astrobrake-S Gen1, featuring enhanced sail area, lifetime (up to 5 years), and reliability achieving over 0.9 probability of successful autonomous deorbiting.