478 Economic Approach for Active Space Debris Removal Services M. Loesch*, F. de Bruin**, M. Castronuovo**, F. Covello**, J. Geary**, S. Hyde**, W. Jung**, F. Longo**, M. Martinez Fernandez**, S. Mason**, K. Springborn**, S. Wagenbach**, J. Kreisel*** *Astrium Satellites GmbH, Munich, Germany e-mail: Martin.Loesch@astrium.eads.net ** Participants in the 2009/2010 SpaceTech Post-Graduate Master Program on Space Systems and Business Engineering by Delft University of Technology ***Joerg Kreisel - JOERG KREISEL International Consultant (JKIC), Remscheid/Aachen, Germany e-mail: jk@jkic.de Abstract The space environment is getting more and more populated with first collisions of satellites already happening. This paper presents a technical implementation of a modular system for active space debris removal, which can be implemented gradually and flexible, adaptable to mission needs or future technologies developed. The flexible approach to remove empty upper stages or satellites no longer in operation considers a dual-robotic arm concept to manage the rendezvous with these non-cooperative targets. The concept foresees attaching de-orbit devices to debris elements, based on either chemical propellants or electromagnetic tethers. While these de-orbit devices will burn up with each object being removed, the removal satellite core is maintained and used for additional de-orbit missions. Besides an efficient technical implementation, special focus is paid to the commercial assessment of such space debris removal service. For this purpose, the constraints as well as the opportunities for an economically viable implementation are presented and discussed, showing that the increasing awareness of the space debris problem bears the chance for a commercially viable business case. The work presented in this paper has been conducted in the course of the 12th SpaceTech post-graduate master program on space systems and business engineering by TU Delft. 1 Nomenclature ADR Active Space Debris Removal AOCS Attitude and Orbit Control System DEOS Deutsche Orbitale Servicing Mission EDT Electro-Dynamic Tether LEO Low Earth Orbit OOS On-Orbit Servicing [1] PDGF Power Data Grabble Fixture SSO Sun-Synchronous Orbit TDK Thruster Device Kit TRL Technology Readiness Level 2 The Space Debris Problem Since the dawn of the space age, each space mission has left debris in the Earth’s orbit. Initially this debris was thought to be insignificant when contrasted against the vastness of space itself. However, debris left in orbit will remain for decades and more missions will be launched. Collisions with debris are on the rise and today the leading researchers predict that orbital debris, if left unchecked, will render space inaccessible in the near future [2]. This conclusion is unavoidable even if all future launches were to be halted completely. Figure 1: History of orbital debris population and annual growth rate [3] International agreements on passive, mitigation strategies have been adopted and implemented. However recent events such as the Iridium Cosmos collision and i-SAIRAS 2010 August 29-September 1, 2010, Sapporo, Japan