25,000 parts with crash potential

In late October, the International Space Station (ISS) had to fire its correction thrusters for more than five minutes to avoid space debris, remnants of Russia's Cosmos 1408 satellite. be able to approach the station,” said the US space agency NASA. With corresponding dangers for the further, proper operation of the ISS.

There shouldn't have been any garbage. It was the result of a Russian anti-satellite test a year earlier. The planned destruction of the former spy satellite had caused considerable international criticism. The device was shot up into around 1,500 pieces during the maneuver, and they are now circling the globe as metal remains, especially on low-Earth orbits.

Junk parts are becoming more and more common in space, even without the planned destruction of satellites. It was only in November that the upper part of the Chinese Long March 6A rocket broke apart unplanned after the dropping of an observation satellite. The approximately 50 parts that were created will continue to orbit the earth for years to come.

According to NASA estimates, there are now 100 million pieces larger than a millimeter floating up there. Most dangerous to other satellites are the 25,000 pieces over four inches long that have the greatest potential to cause destruction on impact. After all, there are also a lot of complete satellites moving through space that are no longer operational.

"Given the vastness of space, space is often seen as an infinite resource," said Rajeev Suri, CEO of British satellite group Inmarsat. "Unfortunately, that's not the case as the global space industry is launching more and more satellites as part of a significant investment boom."

The launch of satellites is already becoming increasingly difficult. In view of the number of artificial celestial bodies in the orbits of the earth, the free spaces between them, which are necessary for further launches, are becoming increasingly scarce. In addition, there is the risk of collisions with scrap parts that can throw satellites off their orbit or seriously damage them.

The numbers make the importance clear: in 2016, around 1700 satellites were in low-Earth orbit. By the middle of the year ending, they had grown to 5,400, more than three times that number. And the number is rapidly increasing: a decade ago, an average of 80 to 100 satellites were launched into different orbits. In 2017, the Office for Outer Space Affairs, a unit of the United Nations, counted over 300 new satellites.

Smaller communications satellites are now being sent into low orbit by the hundreds every year. Projects like Starlink, SpaceX's communications network from Elon Musk's corporate conglomerate, are contributing to this. In the current year 2022, more than 2000 satellites have been added. From spring 2023, there will probably be more with the satellites from Amazon's Project Kuiper.

On average, the lifespan of these satellites is five to ten years, explained Suri. But their disposal has hardly been an issue so far. Wrongly: “The wreckage creates dangers not only in the corresponding orbit, but also for everything else that crosses this orbit. And there are more ecological dangers to come,” he warned. Light pollution is one of them, from rays that are refracted, but also the danger of toxic substances that can, for example, attack the ozone layer when particles in the atmosphere burn up.

The dangers are not limited to outer space. A study by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, puts the probability that people will be injured as a result of satellite parts falling to earth within the next decade at ten percent.

The unmanned moon mission "Artemis 1" has now started after several failed attempts. Prof. Ulrich Walter, astronaut and professor of space technology at the Technical University of Munich, explains the importance of this mission.

Source: WORLD

"The relevant rules for space were written decades ago and they are no longer sufficient today," Suri is convinced. They would be based on voluntary consent and no serious sanctions were planned.

Moriba Jah, an astrodynamics expert from the University of Texas at Austin and scientific advisor to Privateer Space, a company that is working on collecting space debris and making data available, is also convinced that "business as usual" is not possible. A holistic approach to planning and regulation is needed, across national borders, comparable to aviation or international shipping.

The little knowledge about the importance of space for everyday life on earth is not helpful. When asked what they associate with space, 21 percent of those surveyed in a current Inmarsat study with 20,000 participants answered "aliens". 14 percent think of “Science Fiction”, every tenth of “Star Wars”. In contrast, eight percent think of the keywords "communication and networking", three percent mention "radio and television".

And 29 percent do not consider communication satellites to be necessary. The lack of awareness surprised him, commented former US astronaut Scott Kelly on the results. "That suggests they just don't understand how the voice and data systems they rely on actually work." better connect around three billion people who have not previously had access to the Internet.

The first steps should bring change. In September, the US communications regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), presented new rules that would oblige operators to remove satellites in the near-Earth area from this orbit no later than five years after the end of their mission. The regulations have not yet been passed, but experts see them as a step in the right direction. The current rules only recommend disposal within 25 years.

The European Space Agency ESA has also put the issue of sustainability on its agenda. Among other things, she wants to strengthen the concept of circularity in space, examine more repairs and the reuse of materials. The international telecommunications association ITU advises on this. And the first companies are taking on the question. ClearSpace, based in Great Britain and Switzerland, is working on devices that will collect unusable satellites in space in a first mission from 2025.

The astrodynamicist Jah sees the USA in a leading role. Just as the country is trying to end single-use plastic, so too must single-use satellites. What cannot be recycled must be disposed of in a controlled manner. Suri from Inmarsat, on the other hand, is pushing for rapid international cooperation in addition to regulation, research and better data processing.

“At the multilateral level, the countries with the most activities in space should come together quickly to define standards, such as limiting the number of satellites per defined orbit. In addition to the USA and the European Union, it includes Great Britain, Japan, Brazil and Australia.

Time is of the essence. Otherwise, the opportunities offered by the many additional satellites could not materialize. "Only sustainable development in space can support sustainable economic activity on earth."

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