Abstract

The number of different space debris on the orbits around the earth has gotten more and more attentions. These debris pieces put spacecraft in a dangerous place. We built a model based on the problems of the space debris’ removal, discussing the cost of the three common methods (ground-based laser removing, water jet cutting and net-capture) for removing the debris. First we used the Monte Carlo to simulate the space debris’ number and speed. Then we built models for the three common methods respectively, explored the removing efficiency of different size of debris and their cost for removing a unit volume of the debris. Finally we find that The laser removing method is suiTable for medium-sized debris with the diameter less than 10cm, the water jet method is suiTable for large-sized debris with the diameter within 10cm and 1400cm, the net-capture method is suiTable for super-large-sized debris with diameter bigger than 1400cm. Also, we analyzed the advantages and shortcoming of each method.

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