Costs and benefits of space debris mitigation

We have conducted a series of simulations of several low-Earth orbit (LEO) missions to examine the cost effect of a growing debris population for several different mitigation scenarios. By comparing the best and worst of these, we find that it is cost-effective to raise mission costs by about 1-1.5% now, and still save money by reducing mission costs in the long run. This compares with 3-4% according to an earlier estimate by Greenberg and Reynolds. We have also made a simple calculation of the cost of end of life (EOL) orbit-raising of geostationary (GEO) satellites.