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| NASA Space Debris Plot of Debris; Source. |
What is Space Debris?
There are
objects floating through space that pose potentially serious consequences for
mankind. No, this is not
Armageddon. One of the biggest threat to
space exploration efforts is not a giant asteroid, but comes from space
debris. According to a study by Dave
Baiocchi and William Welser IV of the RAND Corporation, there are hundreds of
thousands of particles in Earth’s orbit exceeding one centimeter in
diameter. This space debris, which
comprises of “non-functional, man-made objects and components thereof,”
floating through space has increased substantially in recent years.
Why is Space Debris a Problem?
This spike in
space debris is due to both the increasing number of actors and missions
reaching into the final frontier. Why
should we fret over such small matter, especially when it is not even here on
earth? Well let’s examine a few
factors. Peter B. de Selding in his
article states that approximately 1,185 spacecraft will be launched into orbit
over the next decade. Couple this with
the fact that the average price of a satellite will be $99 million (not to
forget the $51 million launching costs.)
That’s a whole lot of money! And
it could all be for nothing if these satellites come into contact with space
debris. The RAND study also found that
“the collision of any one of these objects with an operational satellite would
cause catastrophic failure of that satellite.” James Dunstan and Berin Szoka
expand on the problems caused by space debris in their Forbes magazine article:
“At stake is much more than the $200
billion a year satellite and launch industries and
jobs that
depend on them. Satellites connect the remotest locations in the world; guide us down unfamiliar
roads;
allow Internet users to view their homes from
space; discourage war by making it
impossible to hide armies on another country’s borders; are utterly
indispensable to American
troops in the field; and play a critical role in monitoring climate change and other
environmental
problems. Orbital debris
could block all these benefits for centuries and prevent us from
developing clean energy sources like
space solar power satellites, exploring
our Solar System and
someday making humanity a multi-planetary civilization capable of surviving true
climatic
Space debris is
a problem and with that much debris orbiting the Earth we cannot rely on Bruce
Willis to save us, or our satellites.
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| Although his help couldn't hurt... |
What Does this Mean for the Legal Field?
Efforts aimed at
solving the space debris problem have been primarily focused on mitigation
efforts. This means that those who reach
space have been trying to reduce the amount of space debris that their crafts
emit. Recently, there has been a push by
multiple actors to begin literally cleaning up space through the process of
remediation. However, this process
creates a few significant problems.
The International
Interdisciplinary Congress on Space Debris Remediation defined a few of these problems in their Preliminary Program created for their November 2011
meeting. The first is in relation to
defining an object as space debris and then garnering the permission for the
removal of the debris from the owner of the debris. Currently, the five space treaties do not
provide these definitions and do not provide a process by which this removal
can begin.
The second issue
is related to liability, which is also not explicitly recognized under the current
space treaties. The Preliminary Program
provides the following hypothetical:
“If, in a state’s unilateral effort
to remove from space or service its own space object
in situ, a
functional space object launched and operated by another state is instead inadvertently damaged or
plucked from its orbital location and brought to the earth undamaged. In the latter situation, it can
be argued that
the liability provisions of the
current regime would not apply in such a situation
since, strictly speaking, no damage has been caused
in outer space, in the air space or on the
These issues are
just the beginning of legal issues in relation to space debris. Only time will tell what other problems
arise. Until then I have posted the articles I used in this article as well as further readings for those who want a more in depth understanding of space debris.
Sources:
Baiocchi, Dave and William Welser IV, Confronting Space
Debris: Strategies and Warnings from Comparable Examples Including Deepwater
Horizon, 2010
Additional
Information:
42
U.S.C.A. § 18441
17
F.C.C.R. 5586
19
F.C.C.R. 11567
44
Vand. J. Transnat'l L. 589
29
Yale J. Int'l L. 363
99
Am. J. Int'l L. 649
24
Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 125
60
J. Air L. & Com. 1139
15
Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 319
T.I.A.S.
No. 8480, 28 U.S.T. 695, 1976 WL 166855 (U.S. Treaty)
T.I.A.S.
No. 7762, 24 U.S.T. 2389, 1973 WL 151962 (U.S. Treaty)
20
Geo. Int'l Envtl. L. Rev. 1
25
Yale J. Int'l L. 145
