Space Debris

As more and more satellites go into Orbit, the problem of Space Debris is both an area of huge concern and an opportunity for new businesses to solve the problem

By Anil Prakash

The conversation is no longer about just exploring space but also about cleaning up space debris. As per ESA, the European Space Agency, Nearly 170 million pieces of space debris, larger than 1 mm, are floating in Earth’s orbit. They are very hazardous due to their high speed and velocity rate which can damage active spacecraft and cause serious space mission failures causing exorbitant loss of revenue to the government and private space industry.

Digantara, an Indian startup incubated at IISc, with a unique approach to solve this problem, may have a significant impact in the commercial Space Surveillance and Tracking or SST market in the near future.

The challenge is that space is becoming more and more congested and contested with an increase in civil and military activity, greatly expanded numbers of satellite operators with enhanced launching capabilities giving rise to more and more space junk. Every satellite that enters space has the potential to become debris and this debris can collide with each other or an active spacecraft and form more debris leading to a chain reaction known as Kessler Syndrome.

As per the US Department of Defence tracks and catalogs space debris, there are 27000 cataloged objects which are beyond the critical density mass and pose a serious collision risk. However, nearly a hundred million pieces of space junk with a lower density go widely unrecognized and are still lethal. The problem here is that close to 90% of the catastrophic collision risk is untracked or unknown. In other words, major spacefaring nations are investing billions of dollars in their space missions without accounting for these risks. There is no standard structure and norms of behavior for operating in space which is critical to ensure safe operations for everyone.

Way Forward

The existing space treaties do not address space debris however there are several mitigation guidelines and standards that are followed. Orbital debris mitigation is one of the subsets of Space Traffic Management where there has been more successful at generating guidelines, best practices, and standards in the international community. The Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices (ODMSP) in the US, was recently updated. Internationally, the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) has developed and revised consensus guidelines. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) includes international standards for debris mitigation.

Quite a few government organizations are engaged with this task including the 18th Space Control Squadron <18SPCS>, United States’ DoD, and Europe’s Space Surveillance and Tracking . In India, The Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management (DSSAM), established at ISRO in Dec 2020, engages in evolving improved operational mechanisms to protect Indian space assets through effective coordination with ISRO/DOS Centres, other space agencies, and international bodies, and establishment of necessary supporting infrastructures.

IIIT Delhi is currently working on a research project – called ‘Orbit Computation of Resident Space Objects for Space Situational Awareness’ — to predict the probability of collisions in space. It is funded by DST and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITy). The project has a timeline to be completed by 2022-23.

The international situation has to be assessed in the context of our current and future debris situation and risk profile, particularly focusing on Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management challenges from policy, finance, operations, and technical and international engagement perspectives. Having said that, regulation might be good, but it should not come at the expense of added costs for commercial enterprise, nor should it restrain the innovation movement that is going through the space industry these last few years.

The global space debris monitoring and removal market size was $800 million in 2020 and is projected to grow from $860 million in 2021 to $1.4 Billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 7.84%. India need to capture the space debris cleaning market which can not only contribute to a sustainable space environment but also create a viable business case for the private sector.

Space Surveillance and Collision Prevention - A Business Opportunity

Every good thing comes at a cost and every issue comes with an opportunity. The opportunity here lies in finding a cost-effective and viable business model that solves the issue.

US-based new age private companies like LeoLabs, Numerica Corporation ComSpOC, ExoAnalytic, etc. are venturing into Space surveillance and tracking (SST) services that extend to the activity for detection, tracking, and cataloging of space objects to prevent future collisions. There are missions planned by Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) with startups Astroscale and Clearspace respectively to clear space junk with missions planned by 2024-25. Digantara, an Indian startup incubated at IISc, with a unique approach to solving this problem, may have a significant impact on the commercial SST market in the near future.

Interesting solutions have been proposed and brought into execution such as deorbiting via a propulsion system, orbital lifetime reduction mechanism accelerating the natural decay of spacecraft, moving object to safer zone or move it down to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, and active removal of debris with the use of developments on related industries of computer vision, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The global space debris monitoring and removal market size was $800 million in 2020 and is projected to grow from $860 million in 2021 to $1.4 Billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 7.84%. India needs to capture the space debris cleaning market which can not only contribute to a sustainable space environment but also create a viable business case for the private sector. The government could fund these technologies which protect the environment and also the space missions. SSA is an environmental issue and should be treated as such where the cost burden of SSA needs to move from the satellite and launch operator to the state.

Prakash is Director General, SIA-India

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