This would work, but only if it allowed satellites to be exempted if they had a credible plan for deoribiting (which the vast majority of satellites launched today do, BTW). In that case, no one would actually pay the deposit, since it would cost several orders of magnitude more to go "get" a satellite (as opposed to just ensuring enough delta-V left over at the end of the mission to deorbit)
Presumably, with OP’s plan, when you deorbit your own satellite you get your deposit back.
Re:Kessler Syndrome
by dr_orpheus on Friday November 02, 2018 @10:53AM
(#18363424)
There are restrictions in place already to make sure that satellites launched now will de-orbit (or be placed in to a non-operational orbit). In order to get a license from the FCC to operate a satellite you have to prove that you have some way of de-orbiting the satellite within 25 years after mission end or 30 years from launch. On an international level the ITU has the same guidelines. This applies for satellites in low earth orbit.
For satellites in geosynchronous orbit it takes a hell of a lot of energy to de-orbit them. So the requirements are to place the satellite in a non-operational orbit at the end of the mission which usually means boosting it up higher outside of the geosynchronous belt.
The price might need to be flat for each satellite (depending on the orbit) + a price per kg as cubesats are becoming more and more prevalent.
It won't cost the same to fetch something in low earth orbit than in geosynchronous orbit.
Not much need to worry about GEO. Everything there is moving at the same speed in the same direction. It's all the stuff in upper LEO where different satellites are all orbiting at different inclinations where this is a problem. And only upper LEO, down where the ISS is at ~400km an object with a low ballistic coefficient like a screw won't stay in orbit very long.
But like all 'easy to litter, hard to clean up' problems of this nature, we have a solution already: require a cleanup deposit ahead of time that will be returned to whoever cleans it up.
All space-launching countries should sign an accord that said something along the lines of "Every satellite must have a deposit to the international Kessler Fund", say something like $X/kg, inflation adjusted. Companies would spring up with the sole purpose of de-orbiting defunct satellites. Launch would become more expensive, yes, but soon every bit of metal in space would come equipped with a plan for how we're getting it out of orbit.