A report by NASA, ‘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 outlines 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. From expensive actions such as dedicated space debris removal missions to better shielding of new satellites and improved tracking of the smallest space debris fragments, there are many ways to protect the space environment from the potentially devastating effects of the growing amount of space junk orbiting Earth. The Kessler syndrome, also known as the Kessler effect, collisional cascading, or ablation cascade, is a scenario proposed by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais in 1978. It describes a situation in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) becomes so high due to space pollution that collisions between these objects cascade, exponentially increasing the amount of space debris over time. This proliferation of debris poses significant risks to satellites, space missions, and the International Space Station, potentially rendering certain orbital regions unusable and threatening the sustainability of space activities for many generations. In 2009, Kessler wrote that modeling results indicated the debris environment had already become unstable, meaning that efforts to achieve a growth-free small debris environment by eliminating past debris sources would likely fail because fragments from future collisions would accumulate faster than atmospheric drag could remove them. The Kessler syndrome underscores the critical need for effective space traffic management and collision avoidance strategies to ensure the long-term viability of space exploration and utilization.

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Space debris could be dealt with more cheaply than previously thought, new NASA report suggests