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Mahesh

25/12/22 08:39 AM IST

Uncontrolled re-entries of satellites

In News
  • More than 140 experts and dignitaries have signed an open letter published by the Outer Space Institute (OSI) calling for both national and multilateral efforts to restrict uncontrolled re-entries.
Uncontrolled re-entry
  • In an uncontrolled re-entry, the rocket stage simply falls. Ground stations usually lose control on such rockets.
  • Its path down is determined by its shape, angle of descent, air currents and other characteristics. It will also disintegrate as it falls.
  • As the smaller pieces fan out, the potential radius of impact will increase on the ground.
  • Some pieces burn up entirely while others don’t. But because of the speed at which they’re travelling, debris can be deadly.
  • Most rocket parts have landed in oceans principally because earth’s surface has more water than land. But many have dropped on land as well.
Associated Concerns
  • Any kind of re-entry will inevitably damage some ecosystem and there is also an associated risk of human causalities on the ground as well.
  • A 2021 report of the International Space Safety Foundation said, an impact anywhere on an airliner with debris of mass above 300 grams would produce a catastrophic failure, meaning all people on board would be killed.
  • If re-entering stages still hold fuel, atmospheric and terrestrial chemical contamination is another risk.
  • There is no international binding agreement to ensure rocket stages always perform controlled re-entries nor on the technologies with which to do so.
  • These technologies include wing-like attachments, de-orbiting brakes, extra fuel on the re-entering body, and design changes that minimise debris formation.
  • The Liability Convention 1972 requires countries to pay for damages, not prevent them.
About Outer Space Institute (OSI)
  • It is a network of world-leading space experts united by their commitment to highly innovative, transdisciplinary research.
  • Comprised physical scientists, social scientists, lawyers, engineers, industry leaders, and policymakers.
  • It breaks down barriers that prevent people in different fields from working together.
Way forward
  • The Outer Space Institute (OSI) has published the International Open Letter on Reducing Risks from Uncontrolled Re-entries of Rocket Bodies.
  • The Open Letter calls on governments to negotiate a multilateral agreement requiring controlled re-entries.
  • It also wants Nations to demonstrate leadership by immediately and unilaterally committing to national controlled re-entry regimes.
  • The letter states that the conservative estimates place the casualty risk from uncontrolled rocket body re-entries as being on the order of 10% in the next decade.
  • The U.S. Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices (ODMSP) require all launches to keep the chance of a casualty from a re-entering body to be below 0.01%.
  • It also emphasizes that countries in the Global South’ face a “disproportionately higher” risk of casualties.
Source- The Hindu

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