John FreemanSpace Law May Soon Focus on Space Debris Cleanup, Not Just Mitigation
https://spaceref.com/newspace-and-tech/space-law-focus-space-debris-cleanup-not-just-mitigation/
Kevin Leecaster@Scifiguy
I don't think that people should feel free to let garbage burn up in our atmosphere personally. I'd like to have all the space trash hauled out someplace closer to the moon where maybe it might get recycled someday.
I don't think that people should feel free to let garbage burn up in our atmosphere personally. I'd like to have all the space trash hauled out someplace closer to the moon where maybe it might get recycled someday.
@GreenFire It's late here, and I can't find the link quickly right now, but I've seen very serious proposals for small unmanned missions that would basically recycle some of the larger pieces of space debris - mostly the shut-down upper rocket stages - into cheap and accessible unmanned space laboratories for commercial interests. I'll try and find the link tomorrow.
@GreenFire Hey, sorry for the delay: The company planning to turn bigger bits of space junk into orbiting laboratories is called Nanoracks, and they've successfully tested some of the technology needed already: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a41833287/cutting-steel-in-space/
Tergenev has moved@Scifiguy All interesting points, but I think there needs to be a discussion about when debris can be declared ‘free for salvage’. No business will try to clean up debris until international law provides a mechanism to declare the original launcher’s rights null. If a dead Soviet second stage is still zooming through increasingly full orbital altitudes, why can’t we allow someone to go out and clean it up? Maybe orbits should be considered like radio frequencies.
@Tergenev The legal aspect is a bigger problem than the practical one, as the debris sis still considered sovereign territory of the nation that launched it, or property of the company that did. But there are serious proposals to send small, unmanned, craft to things like defunct rocket upper stages and and re-use them as cheap and accessible space laboratories for commercial interests - I'll try to find the link in the morning.
@Scifiguy Yeah, I understand. pesky sovereignty. 🙂
Still, I think a discussion along the lines of abandoned vessels in international waters should provide a precedent. No matter what flag a ship is flying, if it's abandoned in international waters, presenting a threat to navigation, there have to be rules for dealing with it? or even if not in international waters, but critical navigational corridors. I'm thinking the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.
Still, I think a discussion along the lines of abandoned vessels in international waters should provide a precedent. No matter what flag a ship is flying, if it's abandoned in international waters, presenting a threat to navigation, there have to be rules for dealing with it? or even if not in international waters, but critical navigational corridors. I'm thinking the Ever Given in the Suez Canal.
@Scifiguy Still, I found a page on the NOAA website about 'Abandoned and Derelict Vessels' and it sound like the legal situation is messy, and that's just within U.S. waters. The issue though is that abandoned and derelict vessels in orbit pose a much great risk of disaster (Kessler syndrome) than they do in international waters.
https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/what-marine-debris/abandoned-and-derelict-vessels
https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/what-marine-debris/abandoned-and-derelict-vessels
@Tergenev Given the current world situation I'm not sure how likely it is, but I hope that some amount of common sense - to preserve orbit as a resource for everyone's use - would be applied. In any case, the company planning (and testing technology) to turn space junk into orbiting laboratories is called Nanoracks: https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a41833287/cutting-steel-in-space/