{"id":25838,"date":"2018-09-24T19:09:17","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=25838"},"modified":"2018-09-24T19:09:17","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T13:39:17","slug":"space-debris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/space-debris\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Debris"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Why in news?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, Surrey Space Centre scheme, \u201cRemoveDebris\u201d, for removing orbiting debris successfully captured experimental test junk. The 100kg RemoveDebris satellite was launched to the station in April as cargo on a supply mission.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What is Space Debris?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The term \u2018space debris\u2019 does not have a unanimously accepted legal definition. It is generally used to describe the collection of unwanted objects in the earth\u2019s orbit which is either man-made or natural<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Natural Debris consists of natural bodies revolving around the sun, like, meteors and asteroids.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artificial Debris consists of man-made objects (usually non functional) which revolves around the Earth. (Therefore it is most commonly referred as Orbital Debris)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the Report of Second U.N. Conference on Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space 1982, space debris consists of dead satellites, spent rocket motors, nuts and bolts etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Space Debris-Statistics:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The U.S Space Surveillance Network is tracking over 13,000 human-made objects larger than 10 cm in diameter orbiting the Earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, there are over 100,000 objects measuring between one and ten cm in diameter and millions smaller than one cm.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is estimated that 40 % of the tracked debris is the result of breakups of rockets and space craft bodies.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Examples of space debris<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chinese Tiangong-1 which crashed into the South Pacific ocean is the most recent example of space debris <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China also destroyed its Fengyun-1C weather satellite in January 2007 during a weapons test, creating some 3,300 fragments of debris in what was one of the most classic examples of space pollution.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2016, Japanese satellite Hitomi \u201clost\u201d in space<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ISROs launch vehicle PSLV-C19\u2019s 4th stage (it had launched radar imaging satellite RISAT-1 in 2012) burnt up over the Central Atlantic.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Impact:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b> Spacecraft:<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space debris is a threat to active satellites and spaceships. For example, in 2009, a dead Russian satellite and a functioning US satellite collided and added more than 2,000 pieces of trackable debris into space<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><b>Kessler Syndrome:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Kessler Effect is a possible effect that if one satellite produces debris that hit another satellite, this will create a chain reaction that will obliterate every orbiting object in the Low Earth Orbit, and thus creating a thick cloud of white dots travelling at high speed. Rockets would no longer be able to reach space since they risk getting hit by these debris. (<\/span><b>Watch the movie Gravity!!)<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>On Earth:<\/b> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The possibility of a person being hit and injured by space debris is estimated to be one in million. Till date, there has been only one such incident reported, where a women in Tulsa, Oklahoma was hit by a debris from Delta II stage during its re-entry event in 1997. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Related Laws\/ treaties<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The major treaties which are dealing with space law along with the provisions of environment safety are: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outer Space treaty, 1967 <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moon Treaty, 1979<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Environment Modification Convention 1977,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space Liability Convention 1972,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Rescue Agreement 1968<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Space Registration Convention 1975<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Outer Space Treaty:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Key Provisions:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried on for the benefit and in the interests of all mankind<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Outer space and celestial bodies are free for exploration and use by all states<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No Weapons of Mass Destruction are permitted in the outer space.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">States shall be responsible for their national activities in outer space, whether carried on by governmental or non governmental entities;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">States shall be liable for the damage caused by their space objects<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">States shall avoid the harmful contamination of outer space<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Liability Convention, 1972:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It states that the launching state is absolutely liable for damage caused on Earth\u2019s surface or to aircraft in flight; if the damage is caused elsewhere (e.g., in space), the launching state is liable only if the damage is due to its fault or the fault of persons for whom it is responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Space Debris Mitigation and Removal:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Tracking:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tracking of Space Debris is very important to have a rough overview of the situation of the problem. It can further help us in avoiding major collisions in future. In the present time, there are some sensors put up for tracking space objects. The United States Space Surveillance Network, track, identify, and catalogue all manmade objects orbiting the earth. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Mitigation:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UN-Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines: <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit debris release during nominal operations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Minimize break-up potential during operations<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit accidental in-orbit collision probability<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Avoid intentional destruction &amp; harmful activities<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit the probability of post-mission break-up<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit the long-term presence of spacecraft and launcher orbital stages in the LEO protected region re-entry objects resulting from this recommendation must not pose an undue risk to the ground population<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Limit the long-term interference of spacecraft and launcher orbital stages with the GEO protected region.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Removal:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under this method the space debris is planned to be removed by the human made machines (spacecrafts).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, a space mission named <\/span><b>Remove Debris <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was launched to demonstrate various space debris removal technologies. It is being led by Surrey Space Centre at the university of Surrey UK and is co funded by European commission and other partners. Recently, Surrey Space Centre scheme for removing orbiting debris successfully captured test junk.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It showcased 4 methods:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Net capture: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It involves a net that will be deployed at the target CubeSat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Harpoon Capture: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which will be launched at a target plate made of \u201crepresentative satellite panel materials\u201d <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Vision-based navigation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using cameras and LiDAR (light detection and ranging), the platform will send data about the debris back to the ground for processing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>De-orbiting process: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As it enters Earth\u2019s atmosphere, the spacecraft will burn up, leaving no debris behind.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Other Measures of removal include:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Auto Detector Debris Satellites, which can auto-detect the space junk and either destroys it or take it back on Earth.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supersonic Laser, which can be use by placing it on Earth only, but it, will burn the space trash. These lasers have been put up in Australia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artificial Robots, which can go to space and there only work will be to destroy orbital debris.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space Magnet, which can attract small pieces of debris and throw it out from Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space Bombs, which can burn the space junk, without harming any other satellites.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Self De-Orbiting Mechanism, which can allow satellite to automatically go out of Earth\u2019s orbit, after it is of no use.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Space Debris mitigation Measures in India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) recognizes the importance of the current space debris scenario and is committed to effective management of the threats due to space debris. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ISRO developed its debris environmental models and software to predict the close approach of any of the debris to the functional satellites. The software are regularly used for the debris risk management of the orbiting spacecraft and launch vehicles. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A multi-object tracking radar (MOTR) developed by the Satish Dhawan Space Centre allows ISRO to track 10 objects simultaneously. It tracks India\u2019s space assets and space debris, for which India was solely dependent on data provide by the US space agency NASA till early 2016.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ISRO is also part of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), an international governmental forum that coordinates global efforts to reduce man-made and natural space debris by sharing research and identifying debris mitigation options.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Steps to be taken:<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In order to understand and address the threat of space debris there should be \u00a0both scientific perspective as well as a legal approach. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The future space operations need an active debris removal scientific mechanism thereby ensuring protection and conservation of the space environment. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A holistic and a comprehensive policy framework comprising of procedures and guidelines for mitigating the impact of space debris needs to be formulated for implementation of the scientific plan by the international community.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why in news? Recently, Surrey Space Centre scheme, \u201cRemoveDebris\u201d, for removing orbiting debris successfully captured experimental test junk. The 100kg RemoveDebris satellite was launched to the station in April as cargo on a supply mission. What is Space Debris? The term \u2018space debris\u2019 does not have a unanimously accepted legal definition. It is generally used&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/space-debris\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Space Debris<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":25840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-editorials","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/space.jpg?fit=673%2C452&ssl=1","views":{"total":343,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}