Lost in space junk

They say what goes up must come down. When it comes to space, however, this expression doesn’t ring true, with space debris now reaching crisis proportions.

Byline: Sophie Bennett

There are currently around 28 600 space debris objects tracked by space surveillance networks, and many more objects not able to be tracked at all.

However, regulating the use of space and keeping countries accountable for debris, is no easy feat, said Steven Freeland, emeritus professor at Western Sydney University and Professorial Fellow at Bond University specialising in Space Law.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible, and that we should just throw our hands up and wait for disasters to happen,” he said.

“There’s a lot of discussion and a lot of work being done already, but it’s not easy and that’s really the point.”

Although Australia is not a top contender in the global space industry, Celine D’Orgeville, professor at the Australian National University, sees Australia having a strong political influence in global discussions.

“There is room for Australia to take a little bit of leadership and guide this conversation at policy level,” she said.

As each year more satellites are sent into space, people’s reliance on this technology increases. From Wi-Fi to online banking, if a major collision was to knock out functioning satellites, lives would be dramatically changed, Freeland said.

“So, to the extent we continue on a ‘business as usual’ basis to create unacceptable amounts of additional debris to the point where we create irreversible damage, or at least for generations and generations, then that will have devastating effects on the world, the economy, lifestyles, infrastructure; in essence, everything about the functioning of our society may collapse.”

While countries are entering legal discussions in an attempt to regulate the use of space, researchers are investigating potential ways to mitigate collisions and ‘clean up’.

Space Debris Audio Mixdown 1 by sophieAbennett

*This story, first published by The Junction, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.WORLD NEWS DAY 2021

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