Strategies for Mitigating and Remediating Space Debris in the Geostationary Orbit

Abstract

As space exploration continues to grow rapidly, there is a problem halting this development—space debris. Every year, an increasing amount of space debris accumulates in Earth's orbit, trapping us inside our own planet. It is becoming increasingly difficult for spacecraft to enter Earth's geostationary orbit (GEO), a circular orbit 35,800 km (or 22,300 miles) above the Earth's equator, without contacting space debris. Pieces of debris less than 4 inches in length, often referred to as micrometeorites, complicate this matter further, as they cannot be seen with the current technology we have and, when coming into contact with spacecraft, can cause immense damage. Here, we investigate different companies' (such as Northrop Grumman, Astroscale, OrbitFab and Arcsec) engineering solutions for this problem, some of which are soon to be implemented, whilst others are in beta testing. The solutions presented in this paper fall under two broad categories: mitigation and remediation. Solutions under mitigation focus on new engineering designs to aid spacecraft in avoiding and surviving collision with space debris, i.e., motion tracking technology, heat-sensing cameras, and a stronger body. Solutions under remediation aim to clean Earth's orbit of debris to make spacecraft less likely to ever encounter debris while in the GEO, i.e., adding a docking station for spacecraft low on fuel, sending spacecraft with the sole mission of collecting debris, robotic arms to pick up the debris, and the elimination of the practice of abandoning spacecraft. A combination of strategies from both these approaches can secure spacecraft missions in the future and enable humanity to reach new limits in space exploration.