It is difficult to imagine a world where GPS fails, the news does not arrive and bank applications stop working. But all those Technologies They depend on satellites and an invisible enemy from Earth threatens them: the growing space garbage.
This complex international problem is one of the issues that has been addressed in a meeting in Vienna of the UN office for space matters (oneo), which concludes this Friday.
The latest report of the Interinstitutional Committee for Space Junk Coordination (IADC), which groups the main space agencies, points out that there are more than 30,000 waste in orbit of more than 10 centimeters, and around one million exceeding one centimeter.
Collision waterfall
The report – due to the oneo meeting – details that these fragments of space garbage can cause damage to satellites or even destroy them, causing the additional appearance of thousands of spatial waste fragments.
“This is a great concern because it increases the risk of a collision that causes a waterfall of other collisions that end up preventing us from accessing the space in the future,” alerts the director of one, Aarti Holla-Maini.
“It is a problem that affects us all, since we depend on space technology in everyday life,” emphasizes the expert, who emphasizes that a “very urgent” solution should be sought because spatial activity has multiplied by ten In the last two decades.
Oney plays a key role in the coordination of international efforts to address the situation by promoting “cooperation between different countries and the private sector,” explains Holla-Maini.
This agency acts as Secretariat of the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of space (copuos), the main agency responsible for discussing this matter.
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Difficult consensus
In 2019, that committee adopted a sustainability guide for outer space, with recommendations to reduce space garbage.
However, “the guidelines are only measures on paper,” explains the director.
“The important thing is that countries apply them” and incorporate them into their national regulations, adds Holla-Maini.
Currently, that guide is voluntary.
“We do not live at a time when it is possible to reach a consensus on a new binding treaty. The geopolitics of this era does not allow it, ”says Holla-Maini about the current international situation.
In this context, the application of this regulation is in the hands of each country. The European Union is the only regional bloc that has taken steps to turn these guidelines into mandatory norms.
He also gave as an example to the United States, who has taken measures such as that satellites in low orbit must be removed in the five years later at the end of their useful life.
Who pays cleaning?
The constellations of small satellites such as Starlink, which has some 6,000 devices, have intensified the debate on space safety.
“The more releases occur, the greater the risk of collision,” says Holla-Maini.
However, the expert emphasizes that the key is not to restrict private operations -something that depends on states -but to guarantee security through better global coordination.
To improve coordination between organizations, the director echoed the proposal of United Arab Emirates to create a global platform so that operators can share information about their satellites and collision alerts.
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In this sense, the role of the private sector and space companies is now essential to mit Signed some companies, says Holla-Maini.
In addition to prevention, active waste elimination has become an area of growing interest.
Holla-Maini highlighted the work of specialized private companies such as the Japanese ‘Astroscale’ or the Switzerland ‘Clear Space’ and believes that it is necessary ”
Holla-Maini recalled that, for the moment, New Zealand and Japan are the only two countries that have guidelines for the concession of space garbage withdrawal.
The question of international financing to clean the terrestrial orbit is also open.
“I don’t think we can simply apply the principle of ‘who pollutes, pays’,” argues the director of one.
“Are the great objects, mostly governmental, the most dangerous? Or are the small satellites that are thrown now? I don’t know, ”summarizes the expert.
“I imagine that many developing countries could ask themselves why they should pay for a crisis that they have not generated,” says Holla-Maini who adds that, however, it is a problem that affects everyone.
However, any solution will require an international consensus, something that is yet to be achieved.