A new report by NASA outlined the most promising approaches to keeping the space around Earth safe and usable for future generations and finds that the solution could be more cost-effective than previously thought.
The new report "Cost and Benefit Analysis of Mitigating, Tracking and Remediating Orbital Debris" compares the cost-effectiveness of more than 10 different strategies that could be used to reduce the risk of collisions between satellites and orbital debris.
The report, a sequel of an earlier paper published in 2023 and authored by a team of researchers from NASA's Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS), attempts to directly estimate the cost of space debris to satellite operators. That includes direct damage to satellites from junk impacts and the cost of maneuvering to avoid debris, which burns fuel and shortens a mission's lifespan.
The team plans to follow up the study with additional estimates of the cost-effectiveness of combining different ways of mitigating space debris risks.
Charity Weeden, who leads NASA's OTPS, said, "This study is part of NASA's work to rapidly improve our understanding of that environment as outlined in NASA's recently released Space Sustainability Strategy by applying an economic lens to this critical issue."
The study models the evolution of the orbital environment over the next 30 years and looks at the risks posed by all kinds of debris, from large intact satellites and rocket stages to the smallest fragments created in collisions. It also evaluates the effects of various debris mitigation and remediation strategies, including quickly deorbiting spacecraft at the end of their missions and actively removing large pieces of junk.