China strikes at sin - take care of the space debris problem

This is after the international criticism it received following an experiment in January of hitting a satellite in orbit with a missile * The reactions to the environmental aspect were even stronger than the reactions to the security aspect of the experiment

Avi Blizovsky

The Chinese government is taking a variety of steps to reduce the amount of debris left in space by Chinese rockets and satellites, and to develop self-monitoring tools for these remains to estimate the proportion of Chinese debris already in orbit. This is what a Chinese space expert told Space.com.

As you know, China was criticized for the experiment it conducted on January 11 this year, of Destroying a satellite (which has already ceased to function) using an anti-satellite missile, An area that even the old space powers avoid. Besides the criticism of the expansion of military activity also against space assets, criticism was expressed that the fragments of the satellite and the missile would cause damage to other satellites in orbit around the Earth and even to the International Space Station , a phenomenon known as space debris.

The measurements, which have already been applied in some of them, include techniques that have already been adopted by the space powers to change the orbit of satellites that have ended their lives also from geostationary orbit (the orbit of the communication satellites), and to empty the fuel tanks of the last stages of the rockets that put satellites into orbit and thus prevent the risk of them exploding and creating shrapnel.
China has been a member of an international organization called the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) since the mid-XNUMXs. The organization was founded to deal with the problem, but senior officials in China have admitted that they have been too slow in monitoring and implementing measures to reduce space debris.

The negative international reaction to the event, precisely from its environmental aspect, led the Chinese to cancel the IADC meeting that was scheduled to be held this year in April in Beijing. The meeting was moved to July and took place in Toulouse, France. The Chinese sent a full delegation to the meeting where there was tension between the American and Chinese delegations regarding the January anti-satellite missile test.

Li Ming, who headed the Chinese delegation to Toulouse, told Space.com in August that "China made a late entry into the study of space debris" and added that "there is still a clear gap between China and the other advanced countries in the field of space when it comes to space debris technologies. According to Li, the Space Debris Research Center established at the Purple Mountain Astronomical Observatory in Nanjing, under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as related institutions that will work within the framework of the Chinese 11th Five-Year Plan for the years 2006-2010, handles four aspects of space debris: scanning and review of space debris, preventing collisions with this debris that could increase its amount. Protection of satellites from the debris, and disposal of the debris.

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