Debris-efficient On-Orbit-Servicing: Assessing the techno-economic viability of the “Recycler” GEO satellite

While the short-term impact of collisions on missions is relatively negligible, economic models predict that in one century, space debris will be a major drag on the industry’s development. However, this challenge might also become a business opportunity, with the combined effect of the New Space and renewed legal regulations. The Recycler is a project of geostationary satellite able to harvest components of cooperative satellites. By re-purposing existing hardware, the Recycler may open a second-hand market of debris-efficient On-Orbit-Servicing (OOS). This paper provides the strategic analysis of re-purposing missions, using an approach drawn from Game Theory. This enables unique guidance on which aspects of the proposal should be the focus of attention. Starting from an economic problem, the model is gradually complexified to fit future standard Recycler’s contracts. A sensitivity analysis and a case study were performed to assess the viability of the project. It is concluded that the major obstacles of the Recycler are the number of clients reachable under its fuel constraints, the overall cost of the re-purposed components as well as the long-term rate of their degradation in the space environment.