NATIONAL SPACE LEGISLATION IN EUROPE: ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND DEBRIS MITIGATION

Abstract

Space activity being ultra-hazardous in nature, stringent measures must be employed to ensure environmental protection. The first segment of this portion discusses the importance of environmental protection in space, while the second focuses on the attempts of European space legislation to address this concern. 

Environmental protection in space is imperative is for three main reasons: first, that protection of the environment is desirable in and of itself. Harmful microorganisms can possibly be transported between the Earth on one hand, and other planets and celestial bodies on the other, via spacecraft, astronauts or miscellaneous space equipment. Such artificial alteration of the natural environment of outer space – or forward contamination – would invariably hinder efficient scientific exploration, while carriage of toxins to Earth – or back contamination – could prove hazardous to the health of its residents. In particular, if scientists believe life to exist on a particular celestial body, the dangers posed by environmental contamination are graver since the life on that body would also stand at risk. Second, that generation of debris in space poses grave dangers to the viability of safe space exploration. Orbiting satellites are at constant risk of destruction because of collisions with existing space debris – an ever-increasing corpus. In turn, this could lead to physical damage to spacecraft, loss of mission and loss of lives in the case of manned flights. Third, if space debris survives the impact of atmospheric re-entry, it can have disastrous consequences for the surface of the Earth. The dilemma of space debris is compelling and current, and evidence indicates that mitigation measures must be implemented as soon as possible.

As of 2014, upwards of 4800 total launches had placed approximately 6000 satellites in orbit from different locations across the world – not even a sixth of these continue to function in the present. Out of 12000 orbiting objects examined by the Space Surveillance Network in the United States, nearly 56% constituted fragments of other orbiting objects; about 200 such fragmentation events have been recorded since 1961.