https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20070013702/downloads/20070013702.pdf

A sensitivity study of the effectiveness of active debris removal in LEO

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20060024585/downloads/20060024585.pdf

Instability of the Present LEO Satellite Populations

The many futures of active debris removal

A LEO satellite postmission disposal study using legend

Outer space has after the Cold War enjoyed two decades of fairly peaceful development but is once again becoming more competitive and contested with increased militarization. Therefore, it is important the U.S. maintain its space superiority to ensure it has the capabilities modern warfare requires for successful operations. The difference with earlier periods in space is there is not a blatantly publicized arms race in space but instead a covert challenge to U.S. interest in maintaining superiority, resilience, and capability. There are a finite number of nations that consider themselves geopolitical actors, but as long as the U.S. maintains space superiority those states must play according to a set of rules written without their consent and forced upon them. For authoritarian regimes, U.S. space assets monitor their actions and pursuit of regional influence and this is quite disturbing. For them, any degradation or limitation of U.S. spaceborne capabilities would be seen as a successful outcome. Cyber warfare offers these adversarial actors the opportunity to directly or indirectly destroy U.S. space assets with minimal risk due to limited attribution and traceability.

N.L. Johnson

Papers

EVOLVE 4.0 orbital debris mitigation studies