21 November 2022
With the ambition to tackle the space-junk problem, Chinese aerospace scientists have managed to use a large "sail" to de-orbit spacecraft at the end of their life. The de-orbiter is a sail-like device made of a thin film, the thickness of which is less than one tenth of the diameter of a hair. Folded, it is approximately the size of an adult's palm, but it can cover an area of 25 square meters when unfolded. When a spacecraft is decommissioned, the sail onboard can be automatically opened. Once deployed, it will increase the effects of air friction, slowing the spacecraft in orbit and speeding up its descent into the Earth's atmosphere, where it will burn up. The latest test was done during the launch of the CZ-2D on 23 June.
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