Freefall 3: Death Ray Byproducts

[theangelJean]

Here's the answer to why it almost certainly is not worth it to try and retrieve anything that is already in space:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/38/

Except the original idea wasn't "bring space objects back to Earth", it was "repurpose existing space objects as space stations, because they're nice and roomy". The main objection in that article is that it would take two orders of magnitude more fuel to bring an (extremely distant) object back to Earth orbit than it would to reach it (and then it would burn up on re-entry anyway). However the Saturn V debris weren't designed to leave Earth's gravity well, instead being left behind after giving momentum to Moon missions. So in theory it's more "adjusting an Earth orbit object into a different Earth orbit, then using it as a shell".

In practice, anything we send up there needs to already have a protective shell in place (and more). So until we get large-scale manufacturing happening in space, that's not going to happen either.