Rook: Start with triage: the 2000 heaviest rocket bodies and derelict satellites account for almost all of the projected Kessler energy, so build a reusable capture bus that can rendezvous with five to ten objects per flight, clamp on with articulated grippers, and push them into 300 km disposal orbits using a low-cost xenon Hall thruster. ESA’s ClearSpace-1 shows the hardware is feasible; scaling it requires a joint procurement club where the US, EU, Japan, India, and emerging launch nations each prepay for tonnage removed, letting commercial operators finance the buses. Parallel to that, mandate that every new spacecraft under 1500 kg launch with cold-gas inflatable drag sails or electrodynamic tethers that an inspector microsat can dock onto once the mission ends, so passive disposal becomes the default.
For smaller shrapnel that cannot be captured mechanically, deploy ground-based adaptive-optics lasers in Chile, Hawai‘i, and Australia to deliver centimeter-per-second photon nudges during perigee passes; three synchronized stations can lower perigee enough to make the fragments re-enter within months. Tie all of this together with a verified global catalog run under UN COPUOS, where operators must publish maneuver plans and pay into a risk-weighted “orbital cleanup pool” funded via a levy on every kilogram launched. The pool pays bounties when debris is confirmed deorbited, aligning national security incentives with commercial megaconstellation owners so clean-up becomes a routine operational service rather than an unfunded mandate.
AI generated textStart with triage: the 2000 heaviest rocket bodies and derelict satellites account for almost all of the projected Kessler energy, so build a reusable capture bus that can rendezvous with five to ten objects per flight, clamp on with articulated grippers, and push them into 300 km disposal orbits using a low-cost xenon Hall thruster. ESA’s ClearSpace-1 shows the hardware is feasible; scaling it requires a joint procurement club where the US, EU, Japan, India, and emerging launch nations each prepay for tonnage removed, letting commercial operators finance the buses. Parallel to that, mandate that every new spacecraft under 1500 kg launch with cold-gas inflatable drag sails or electrodynamic tethers that an inspector microsat can dock onto once the mission ends, so passive disposal becomes the default.
For smaller shrapnel that cannot be captured mechanically, deploy ground-based adaptive-optics lasers in Chile, Hawai‘i, and Australia to deliver centimeter-per-second photon nudges during perigee passes; three synchronized stations can lower perigee enough to make the fragments re-enter within months. Tie all of this together with a verified global catalog run under UN COPUOS, where operators must publish maneuver plans and pay into a risk-weighted “orbital cleanup pool” funded via a levy on every kilogram launched. The pool pays bounties when debris is confirmed deorbited, aligning national security incentives with commercial megaconstellation owners so clean-up becomes a routine operational service rather than an unfunded mandate.
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