Assessing Regulatory and Technological Gaps in CubeSat Deorbiting for Sustainable Low Earth Orbit Communications

Abstract

The growth of CubeSat missions has expanded access to space for diverse applications and high-bandwidth, low-latency communication. This expansion has intensified concerns regarding orbital debris and the long-term sustainability of Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Current regulations prescribe post-mission disposal periods of five to twenty-five years. This paper evaluates the gap between these regulatory requirements and the engineering capabilities of 1U, 3U, and 6U CubeSats in sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Orbital lifetimes were simulated using ESA’s Debris Risk Assessment and Mitigation Analysis (DRAMA), and disposal velocity increments were obtained from NASA’s Debris Assessment Software (DAS) by interpolating continuous $\Delta V$ –altitude relationships. Under the nominal assumptions adopted in this study, natural atmospheric decay is sufficient only at lower altitudes, whereas missions above approximately 500 km require additional disposal measures. A first-order sensitivity analysis using ±10% variations in area-to-mass ratio showed that compliance thresholds may shift by approximately 25 km without altering the overall altitude-dependent trends. Passive drag-enhancement approaches, including inflatable devices and drag sails, extend the range of compliant operating altitudes but introduce deployment, structural, and reliability challenges. Although propulsion-based disposal provides greater capability at higher altitudes, it is constrained by propellant storage, spacecraft resources, transportation regulations, pressure-vessel certification, and launch-provider safety requirements. A case study of the LISSA 6U CubeSat illustrates this design gap: the estimated disposal requirement of approximately 19 m/s substantially exceeds the approximately 4.1 cm/s available from its current low-pressure CO2 propulsion system. The results demonstrate that disposal thresholds are mission-specific nominal estimates and highlight the importance of considering orbit selection, disposal strategy, propulsion capability, and regulatory constraints during the early stages of CubeSat mission design.