Growing space debris poses threat to spacecrafts

Thiruvananthapuram, March 9 : About 100 space debris experts who are taking part in the three-day meet of the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination (IADC) Committee here Tuesday expressed concern in the increase in the space debris which is posing a serious threat to spacecrafts.

Inaugurating the meeting Tuesday B.N. Suresh, director of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, said that space faring nations have built huge assets in space.

"The increase in the space debris poses a serious threat to spacecrafts. There has been a 13 percent increase in debris accumulation during 2009 alone. This space debris poses threat to such future structures as well and analysis and mitigation of space debris should form a long-term and sustainable strategy to protect the space and our spacecrafts from such threats," said Suresh.

The event is being hosted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). IADC is an international agency to exchange information on space debris research activities between member space agencies, and to facilitate opportunities for cooperation in space debris research.

P.S. Veeraraghavan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said that although the threats from space debris are real, they are largely manageable.

"IADC has been proactive in addressing the threat of the increasing orbital debris population. Some recent studies indicate that the present space debris environment may lead to cascading growth in object population even without any new launch and there is a need to use active debris removal to stabilize the future debris environment," said Veeraraghavan.

Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit about the earth which no longer serves a useful purpose. Derelict spacecraft and upper stages of launch vehicles, carriers for multiple payloads, debris created as a result of spacecraft or upper stage explosions or collisions, solid rocket motor effluents, and tiny flecks of paint released by thermal stress or small particle impacts are examples for orbital debris.