ASAT weapons date back to the early years of the Cold War. According to the Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems, ASAT weapons were designed for strategic and tactical military purposes. Satellites have long been used by the military to navigate, communicate and gather information about enemy movements and activities through sophisticated satellite imagery: Reconnaissance satellites. Although ASAT weapons have never been used in actual warfare, China, India, Russia and the US have all demonstrated their capability. These weapons have so far only been used by these countries in tests against their own targets, such as decommissioned satellites. If you’re wondering why it would even be necessary to blast your own satellites out of the sky, it might help to remember that this reminds anyone watching that they can destroy a satellite at will. It’s a threat: “If you threaten our infrastructure, we can retaliate.” But each successful test launches thousands of new pieces of debris into orbit. Conceptual rendering of pollution in orbit around the earth The dangers of space junk may not seem obvious at first. After all, space is huge, and you might not think it’s very likely that a few pieces will hit something important. But it’s worth remembering that every object in space, from the International Space Station (ISS) to the tiniest speck of paint, is orbiting the Earth at tremendous speed, and we keep putting more stuff there. The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) maintains a list of objects launched into space. At the end of January 2022, this list counted 8261 individual satellites, an increase of almost 12% over the previous 10 months. And as Starlink and its competitors get busy building their mega-constellations of communications satellites, that growth is only going to accelerate. In fact, conflicts between satellites have already occurred, and it is no longer unusual for satellite owners to avoid each other’s satellites. Remove all ads on Universe Today Join our Patreon for just $3! Get the ad-free experience of a lifetime Photo of Canadaarm2 being hit by a piece of space debris So, as harmless as it may seem to blast your stuff into space, there is a very real threat. Whenever a satellite is destroyed, whether it was attacked by ASAT weapons or simply collided with something, it results in thousands of tiny pieces of debris being spread throughout the original satellite’s orbit. On earth, that would just mean a lot of trash to pick up, but in space and in orbit, that means thousands of shards of metal, plastic, and ceramics are hurtling around the planet many times faster than a rifle bullet. A good example of this was when Russia conducted the most recent ASAT test in November 2021. Debris from the damaged satellite came dangerously close to the International Space Station and urgent action was needed to remove it from danger. This is at the heart of the problem. Most of the larger debris from tests like this can be detected by ground-based radar, with which satellite operators can be warned in advance, but the smaller stuff is essentially invisible. Depending on how high it is, it could remain in orbit for a very long time. Addressing this problem was the main purpose of Vice President Harris’ announcement. By setting standards like this, we hope that other countries will follow suit. According to Robin Dicky, chief analyst at the Aerospace Center for Space Policy and Strategy, “There’s a lot of discussion about different rules – there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for how to deploy them. The approach you take is likely to be very different depending on the content and context.” The global astronomy community and scientists around the world fully support the idea of eliminating space debris, which includes the use of anti-satellite tests, but it may still take time to become a reality. Russia and China have disengaged from the European and American space programs, making the prospect of a “universal protocol” difficult to achieve at this stage. It may take longer than we hope, but conditions are not as bleak as they may seem. Projects such as ClearSpace1 are underway to manage “space junk” by collecting it and performing controlled atmospheric burns. And if we can reach a global agreement to end ASAT, it sets the stage for sustainable long-term management. This historic announcement by Vice President Harris is an important step in the right direction. At the rate we are putting things into orbit, achieving consensus among all private companies and space agencies will become vital. According to the MIT Technology Review, up to 1,100 satellites could be launched each year by 2025. As Dicky puts it, “Setting these shared expectations of what is and isn’t acceptable in space is a critical step in ensuring that space is safe and usable for everyone for decades to come.” The increasing amount of things orbiting the Earth will become a problem in the near future. More information: Carnegie Institution
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