Feasibility Study of a Deorbit Device for a Spent Centaur Upper Stage

"As an extension of my senior design project, I am running simulations of a drag sail on spent rocket upper stages. Space debris could seriously effect the future of space explorations as there is only a limited number of available useful orbits. The senior design project is looking at a sweptback sail that would induce aerodynamic stability with respect to the velocity of a microsatellite. This stability would increase the frontal area of the drag sail and deorbit the spacecraft faster. Spent upper stages are often forgotten about as space debris and are able to be deorbited immediately upon deployment of the payload into its orbit."