Abstract

Space debris can be deorbited by a coating of volatile material that evaporates in sunlight. Consider a roque CubeSat that gets splashed with black gel while on the night side of its orbit. As it emerges into the rays of the Sun, kinetic evaporation provides a retro force relative to the orbital velocity, causing speed to diminish.

Keywords

orbital debris, Kessler syndrome, space junk, evaporative gels