Speaker
Description
Since the beginning of the space age, there has been more space debris in orbit than operational satellites. In the recent years, we have been witnessing a significant change in the use of space, specifically in Low Earth Orbits, with launch rates around 10 times higher than 10 years ago. At the same time, the level of compliance with space debris mitigation measures has not improved with the same rate. The extrapolation of our current behaviour in the future shows the risk of making some orbital regions unusable. In addition, it has been observed that current mitigation approaches are insufficient to guarantee a stable evolution of the debris environment even if applied with much higher rates than currently observed. For this reason, ESA has decided to introduce the so-called the ‘Zero Debris approach’, whose goals is to significantly limit the production of debris in Earth and Lunar orbits by 2030 for all future missions, programmes and activities.
A first significant step in this direction is the update of ESA’s Space Debris Mitigation requirements applicable to ESA missions. Among the most notable changes, these requirements significantly reduce the duration of the disposal phase in LEO, from 25 to 5 years or less, and require spacecraft operating in high-risk conditions to be ready for removal, in case their disposal capability should fail. The requirements also cover additional aspects such as the collision avoidance operations and collision management during close proximity operations. The presentation will give a brief overview of the new requirements and the rationale adopted in their writing.
