Speaker
Description
ARTICA is a project started in 2015 with the aim to develop a ultra-compact passive deorbiting sail for cubesats. The scope was to parallely embrace the two antagonist aspects of the last decade: on one side the foreseen explosive growth of cubesat launches and on the other side the necessity to pose a limit to the consequent LEO orbit population and space debris generation.
ARTICA has been conceived thus with the goal to provide an affordable and reliable deorbiting system for cubesat compatible with user and satellite developer needs, meaning thus a compact and user-friendly device.
The first prototype of the system has been launched in 2017 on board Cubesat UrsaMaior, consisting in a module of 0.35U deploying a sail of 2.1 m2. Thanks to the experience acquired, a novel device as been realized reducing the occupied volume to 0.2U in order to further encourage the use even on board 1U cubesats. With the same philosophy, an open platform approach has been implemented permitting to the user to differently approach the system according to the mission strategy, from a satellite controlled subsystem to complete stand-alone device.
The novel system has currently been ground qualified and NPC is currently looking for possibilities for in-orbit test and validation.
