New Prioritization Approach for Space Debris Removal

As a result of a collaboration between researchers from the ASTRO Lab at Clarkson University (NY, USA), the University Centre of Defence at the Spanish Air Force Academy, MDE-UPCT (San Javier, Spain), and Space Strategies Consulting Ltd. (Ottawa, Canada), a new approach for space debris prioritization for removal was published.

The work, which was published in the journal Advances in Space Research, sets forth an approach for prioritization of space debris through the utilization of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making methodologies and fuzzy logic, as well as both quantitative and qualitative criteria. The work examines over two thousand critical debris objects and the results of the analysis identify high-priority debris objects for removal from Earth-bound orbits.

Full details on the study can be found in the following journal paper by Bazzocchi, Sanchez-Lozano, and Hakima (2021):

M.C.F. Bazzocchi, J.M. Sánchez Lozano, H. Hakima, “Fuzzy Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach to Prioritization of Space Debris for Removal,” Advances in Space Research, Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 1155-1173, 2021.