Who is responsible for space debris

However, the United States condemned the test and Nasa said it had tracked about 50 pieces of debris from the test more than three months after it had been conducted. Earth's orbit is becoming more congested, with thousands of satellites in operation and more launches planned, increasing the likelihood of a collision. But there is no regulation against these anti-satellite tests. Several countries, and some private companies, are testing new ways to mitigate space debris, ranging from harpoons, giant magnets, and nets.

And in , the European Space Agency will launch the first space mission to remove debris from Earth's orbit. But Nasa says cleaning up the space environment remains a "technical and economic challenge". Read more from Reality Check. Send us your questions. Follow us on Twitter. Image source, ESA. Space debris has increased sharply in recent decades. Despite efforts over decades to define the concept of 'space debris', no internationally agreed definition exists. Perhaps the closest we get is that space debris constitutes any man-made object that is either:.

This concept covers fragments and component parts of space objects, as well as decommissioned or failed spacecraft and spent upper stages of launchers. The decommissioned Russian satellite, Cosmos , would therefore be space debris. The Outer Space Treaty offers minimal guidance as to the mitigation of space debris at State level, with much interpretation left to lawyers.

With some stretching and interpretation, this can be used to oblige State Parties to avoid the creation of, reduce, and even remove, space debris to allow all States to participate in the exploration and use of outer space with minimal risk from debris.

An international consultation process is also provided for by Article IX. A State Party may also request consultations if it believes that an activity planned by another State would cause it potentially harmful interference. The provisions also do not address the issue of current or completed activities or the problem of current space debris.

Other relevant provisions of the UN treaties can best be discussed through the use of an example. Suppose a UK-based private communications operator launches a communications satellite. Part of the shielding from the satellite becomes loose, but can be identified, and collides with the antenna of a French satellite causing damage to it.

The UK is, therefore, responsible for the actions of its private operators and for the consequences and resulting damage, if such operators create space debris.

Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty provides that each State retains ownership and control over objects launched into space that are registered on its registry:. The liability regime is two-fold depending on where the damage occurred. In turn, the launch service provider, the satellite owner or operator insures these liabilities.

Only States which are parties to the Liability Convention can file a claim. For the UK to be liable, France would have to:. While the first element may be relatively easy to prove, establishing the causality of damage caused by space debris may be difficult.

France is lucky — the shielding part is large enough to be tracked and France can prove that it is from a UK satellite.

But it would be difficult to identify particulate debris and trace it back to the owner of the original launched object. Earth-based tracking stations can currently monitor pieces of space debris that are larger than approximately 10cm.

Credit: NASA. Fortunately, collisions are rare: a Chinese satellite broke up in March after a collision. Before that, the last satellite to collide and be destroyed by space junk was in And when it comes to exploring beyond Earth's orbit, none of the limited amount of space junk out there poses a problem.

The United Nations ask that all companies remove their satellites from orbit within 25 years after the end of their mission. This is tricky to enforce, though, because satellites can and often do fail.

To tackle this problem, several companies around the world have come up with novel solutions. These include removing dead satellites from orbit and dragging them back into the atmosphere, where they will burn up. Ways we could do this include using a harpoon to grab a satellite, catching it in a huge net , using magnets to grab it, or even firing lasers to heat up the satellite, increasing its atmospheric drag so that it falls out of orbit.

However, these methods are only useful for large satellites orbiting Earth. There isn't really a way for us to pick up smaller pieces of debris such as bits of paint and metal. We just have to wait for them to naturally re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

He said that if there was too much space junk in orbit, it could result in a chain reaction where more and more objects collide and create new space junk in the process, to the point where Earth's orbit became unusable.

This situation would be extreme, but some experts worry that a variant of this could be a problem one day, and steps should be taken to avoid it ever happening. This idea was also popularised in the movie Gravity. It could well be. Several companies are planning vast new groups of satellites, called mega constellations , that will beam internet down to Earth. These companies, which include SpaceX and Amazon, plan to launch thousands of satellites to achieve global satellite internet coverage.

If successful, there could be an additional 50, satellites in orbit. This also means a lot more collision avoidance manoeuvres will need to be done. In September , the European Space Agency performed its first satellite manoeuvre to avoid colliding with a mega constellation.

It is unusual to have to avoid active satellites. By making sure that satellites are removed from orbit in a reasonable amount of time once they are no longer active, we can mitigate the problem of space junk in the future.

Earth's orbit allows us to study our planet, send communications and more. It's important that we use it sustainably, allowing future generations to enjoy its benefits, too. Humans have intentionally and unintentionally left things on the Moon. Credit: R Karkowski, via Pixabay. Not only have we left a lot of space junk in Earth's orbit, there are objects elsewhere too, such as on the lunar surface.

Some things were abandoned on the Moon, but others were placed there as mementos or time capsules. Here are some fast facts about what's been left on the Moon:.