ESA warns: Wild-west manner in the orbit-spatial driven scrap threatens future!

ESA warns: Wild-west manner in the orbit-spatial driven scrap threatens future!

Paris, Frankreich - The situation in the earth orbit is becoming increasingly worrying, according to Walther Pelzer, the head of the German space agency. He describes the conditions that are within reach as "Wild-West manner", due to a lack of regulation in the area of ​​space travel and space waste. The European space agency (ESA) is working intensively to develop a set of rules that is to be implemented nationally to counteract this trend. “ Kleinezeitung.at " reports of more than 10,000 man-made objects over a meter diameter and about 40,000 objects that are more than ten centimeters tall. The problem of space waste affects not only the safety of the active satellites, but also the astronauts of the International Space Station (ISS), which had to be covered 35 times.

It is particularly alarming that an estimated 1.5 million particles over a centimeter and around 130 million particles that are larger than a millimeter float in orbit uncontrollably. These microte particles have already caused damage to straw observation satellites. In order to stop this threatening development, Holger Krag, Head of Space Safety at ESA, emphasizes the necessary investments in technologies to eliminate space waste.

zero debris charter for reducing space waste

A progress in this effort is the introduction of the "Zero Debris Charter" in 2024. This charter, which was also signed by Austria, demands that space objects have to be removed five years after their mission has been completed. This happens with a probability of success of at least 99 percent. The charter, which is based on the concept of a "Zero Debris" approach, was encouraged by the ESA member states at the 2022 ministerial conference. It aims to put Europe to the top of sustainability in space and to secure the competitiveness of the European space industry. According to the ESA, this approach is the result over a decade of joint work and is to achieve a debris-neutral space goals by 2030. Over 140 companies and organizations and 17 countries have already known to be the charter, which promotes global consensus on sustainability in space " Esa.int

The problem of space waste is a global concern. Rolf Densing, ESA director of mission, emphasizes that all users are affected by the dangers of space waste. In fact, there are estimates almost 130 million scrap parts in space, of which around 900,000 are classified as dangerous. These dangerous objects can not only damage satellites, but also impair navigation, communication and weather monitoring. The ESA works closely with the United Nations to create a better understanding of the topic and to support the implementation of existing guidelines " Esa.int