Disposal Design for Geosynchronous Satellites Revisited

The orbits at geosynchronous altitude provide a valuable natural resource for the human kind. In the absence of atmospheric drag, human intervention is needed to keep the region clean of space debris. Current postmission disposal guidelines deal efficiently with the geostationary lowinclination, low-eccentricity satellites but fail to efficiently regulate the whole geosynchronous region. In this work, we revisit the problem of geosynchronous disposal orbits, trying to identify all possible mechanisms for designing effective disposal strategies. Massive numerical simulations are coupled with optimization techniques and semi-analytical modelling to achieve this goal.