Berlin Jan. 8 (BUS): Space debris is increasingly causing problems for satellite builders and space companies, according to German aerospace company OHB.
“It’s a problem,” said CEO Marco Fox of OHB, whose primary business consists of low- and geostationary-orbiting satellites.
He said that what is required are binding rules to ensure that the satellites are removed after they are no longer used and do not pose a threat.
“The ground rules are already in place,” Fox, vice president of the German Aerospace Industry Association (BDLI), told dpa. But sanctions and monitoring are still needed.
Fox said space debris is a global challenge as all 100 or so national space agencies have to ensure certain rules are followed.
For example, small satellites can be built in such a way that they burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of their operational life.
Scientists estimate, based on model calculations, that there are actually about one million particles larger than one centimeter and 330 million particles larger than one millimeter in Earth’s orbit.
Guidelines for avoiding space debris have been around for a long time — but binding treaties and national space laws are essential, said astrophysicist Manuel Metz of the German Aeronautics and Space Research Center (DLR).
According to Metz, the so-called waterfall effect is a particular danger: if large pieces of scrap, some several meters long, collide with other objects, thousands of small pieces of scrap can be created. For this reason, larger objects should be removed from Earth’s orbit first, if possible.
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