Just three weeks ago, the ISS space station had to be re-orbited to avoid colliding with space debris. It was the ISS’s 334th avoidance maneuver since it launched in 1998, and it won’t be the last. Because our earth is surrounded by huge amounts of scrap metal.
Sputnik 1 was the first satellite launched into space in 1957. For more than 60 years, humanity has brought – and left behind – a wide variety of objects into space. According to the European Space Agency, by the end of 2022, more than 10,000 satellites will be orbiting our planet, of which 7,500 will be operational. She estimates the mass of all objects in orbit at more than 10,000 tons.
Given the rapidly growing space industry, more than 60,000 satellites could be in orbit by 2030, writes a research team led by Imogen Napper of the University of Plymouth in the UK in the journal Science. It is therefore necessary to prepare a “legally binding contract in a timely manner that will help protect Earth’s orbit.”
Inadequate international regulation on the high seas has led to overfishing, habitat destruction and plastic pollution, among other things, Napper’s team writes. Progress to protect the oceans is progressing very slowly.
Use of the track, while still in its infancy, is increasing rapidly, underlining the urgency of protecting it. “Like the high seas, orbit is seen as a global common asset, where the exploitation of a seemingly free resource increases and the true cost of potential environmental damage is masked.”
Collective, science-based collaboration is needed to avoid making the same mistakes when protecting the oceans in orbit, the researchers write. The agreement should include manufacturers’ and users’ responsibility for satellites and debris from the time of launch. Finally, the treaty should oblige all countries planning to use Earth orbit to cooperate globally.
However, space is international territory, which makes a legally binding treaty difficult. “The central regulation is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967,” says space law scholar Marcus Schladebach of the University of Potsdam. “Although it contains an environmental protection article, it only says something about ‘contamination must be avoided’. You can’t apply that to recovering such small space debris or even larger old satellites.”
The problem: returns cost a lot of money and aren’t worth it. Schladebach argues for the inclusion of a retrieval obligation in the space treaty. That is, whoever started something must bring it back. The cost-sharing for projects involving several countries must also be laid down.
“There is great silence on the part of the space polluters, ie the space states,” says the professor of space law, Stephan Hobe of the University of Cologne. “They say they’re not responsible for it or the technology isn’t capable of it yet.”
In addition, according to the space authorities and companies, there is a lack of political pressure to solve the problem, says Schladebach. “That means there haven’t been so many accidents that should prompt policymakers to take action here.”
The largest accident to date dates back to the 1970s. At that time, the radioactive Russian satellite Kosmos 954 crashed over Canadian territory, contaminating an entire area.
When it comes to space debris, Schladebach has it very easy for the aerospace industry. After all, you have the Earth’s atmosphere.
According to Esa, some 131 million objects with a diameter of more than one millimeter to ten centimeters are in orbit around the Earth. You basically just let it sink in.
Schladebach also sees problems with more stable and larger objects such as satellites from the 1960s and 1970s. These could largely cope with the intrusion into the Earth’s atmosphere and thus become a potential threat from above at some point.
The other danger is to space travel itself, because there are more than 130 million tiny pieces of scrap: collisions alone create more and more debris that can damage space objects. According to the Russian space agency Roskosmos, the International Space Station (ISS) had to be maneuvered back into another orbit in early March to avoid a collision with space debris. It was already the 334th evasion maneuver for the ISS since its creation.
However, there are already approaches to protecting space objects. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna published the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines in 2007 after international negotiations. Central to this is that the aerospace industry must already think about what should happen to these objects after use during the production of space objects.
But Schladebach also sees problematic solutions. There are considerations that just before it takes its last breath, a space object is blasted into a very high orbit with a lot of energy. Then one would only have to deal with problems in three, four or five generations. This is called spending on so-called space cemeteries.
The former justice system in space was characterized by a very high degree of generosity, Hobe explains. Obviously, constraints are difficult to create, as the previous space protagonists would now have to captivate their own actions. But if they resisted such rules, they would be getting in their own way, says Hobe. “They cut off the opportunity to explore further on their own and, above all, use the space, including through their private companies.”
The right to space is essentially international law and nothing happens without the will and individual interests of the states. While Hobe sees these interests growing, there’s still a long way to go before any real change in space junk rules.
(t-online/dsc)
Source: Blick
I am Ross William, a passionate and experienced news writer with more than four years of experience in the writing industry. I have been working as an author for 24 Instant News Reporters covering the Trending section. With a keen eye for detail, I am able to find stories that capture people’s interest and help them stay informed.
