BREMEN: Space debris is increasingly causing headaches for satellite builders and space companies, according to German space firm OHB.
"It's a problem," said chief executive Marco Fuchs from OHB, whose core business comprises low-orbiting and geostationary satellites.
What is needed, he said, are binding rules to ensure that satellites are cleared away after their end of use and do not pose a danger.
"The basic rules already exist," Fuchs, who is vice president of the German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI), told the media. But there is still a need for sanctions and monitoring.
"Malicious" space junk is also a problem, he said. "We have now had the case of a deliberate launch by Russia. Of course, that's disastrous when you pollute whole space areas with junk just to show that you can shoot down satellites."
Russia recently shot down an out of service spy satellite with a special rocket. The head of the space agency Roskosmos, Dmitri Rogozin, did not rule out further tests in principle.
Space debris is a global challenge where all 100 or so national space agencies must ensure that certain rules are followed, Fuchs said.
Small satellites, for example, could be built in such a way that they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere at the end of their service life.
Scientists estimate, based on model calculations, that there are already about one million pieces larger than one centimetre and 330 million particles larger than one millimetre in Earth's orbit.
Guidelines for avoiding space debris have existed for a long time - but binding treaties and national space laws are necessary, said astrophysicist Manuel Metz from DLR, Germany's research centre for aeronautics and space.
According to Metz, the so-called cascade effect poses a particular danger: If large pieces of scrap, some measuring several metres, collide with other objects, thousands of smaller pieces of scrap can be created. For this reason, the larger objects must be removed from Earth's orbit first, if possible. -- dpa
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