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upstart writes:

65 AA batteries and $10 Arduino processor power space debris solution:

A tiny satellite with a drag chute built by a team of students has been held up as one small possible solution to the thorny issue of space junk caused by defunct hardware cluttering up Earth's orbit.

SBUDNIC, a "Sputnik-like CubeSat," was built by students at Brown University, Rhode Island, from low-cost commercial off-the-shelf parts. It has successfully demonstrated the use of a simple drag sail that helps to degrade the satellite's orbit and push it back into the planet's atmosphere faster than would otherwise have occurred.

[...] The idea behind SBUDNIC was to demonstrate how future satellites could avoid adding to this problem by including a mechanism to help de-orbit them at the end of their life span. The aerodynamic drag device pulls the satellite out of orbit approximately three times faster than comparable satellites, according to Brown University.

[...] The satellite itself is a 3U Cubesat (where 1U is 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, not to be confused with a datacenter rack unit). According to details given by the university, it includes a $10 Arduino microprocessor, 65 AA Energizer lithium batteries and a variety of 3D printed parts produced with consumer-grade printers.

Also 3D printed is the drag sail, made from Kapton polyimide film, which apparently has the right combination of properties to withstand extreme temperature and vibration. This was folded flat along the satellite's frame prior to deployment, using spring-loaded structural masts made of thin aluminum tubing designed to extend out upon triggering of the release mechanism.

[...] Initial computational predictions suggest that the drag device will decrease the orbital lifetime of SBUDNIC from over 20 years to as few as 6.5 years, depending on fluctuations of atmospheric density.

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