Space debris aspects in design and operation of a space craft – the programmatic of an end-to-end service Original Research Article

All space faring nations and their space agencies are aware of the problems of space debris and the corresponding risks. They increase their effort in international committees (e.g., UNCOPUOS, IADC - Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee) to reach an agreement on worldwide regulations (guidelines, handbooks, standards) for the mitigation of space debris. Due to the complexity of the subject it seems to be necessary to advise and support spacecraft designers, manufacturers, suppliers, operators, etc. to handle it, ideally in the form of a commercially useful `End-to-End Serviceʹ. Based on this finding the project `Space Debris End-to-End Serviceʹ was started in Germany in September 2001. `End-to-End Serviceʹ means the consideration of space debris avoidance or mitigation aspects from the beginning of the design, during the operational phase of a spacecraft up to the end of the mission, and the following phase of the initiation of the disposal measures. This Service will assist the user how to analyze the risks of space debris, will provide concepts for debris impact protection measures and will give an estimate for the costs of space debris mitigation measures, supported by examples of cost to benefit analyses. This paper gives an overview on the `Space Debris End-to-End Serviceʹ project and describes the current status.