Analyzing the Economic Impact of Removing Space Debris.

A NASA study has found that some methods of removing orbital debris could pay for themselves within a decade by reducing the costs and risks borne by satellite operators. The most effective approaches involved ground- and space-based lasers to remove large amounts of small debris between 1 and 10 centimeters across. The study also found that the relatively small costs that debris imposes on satellite operators today, estimated at $58 million a year, mean that the risk to satellite operators need not increase at the same rate as orbital debris increases.