ESA's (European Space Agency) Member States have put forward a Space Safety Programme in 2019, and approved a continuation of the second programme period in 2022. The Programme addresses how space weather, Earth-impacting natural objects, and space debris affect the functioning of our infrastructure in space and on ground. We will focus on the programme’s segment Space Debris and Clean Space, where ESA aims at developing the technologies for Europe to monitor space-related traffic, and to address the related risks. We introduce the relevant programme goals and report on the current status of ongoing and of next activities. Special focus will be on ESA’s activity for preparing a mission to demonstrate active debris removal. We will also introduce ESA’s “Zero Debris” approach and the accordingly revised Space Debris Mitigation Policy. The underlying requirements of the policy require the implementation of mitigation measures build on top of a common European baseline. Examples for such measures are the duration of the disposal phase in Low Earth Orbit is reduced from 25 to a maximum of 5 years, or less, with an additional criterion based on the cumulative collision probability with space debris during the inactive phase; the probability of successful disposal which shall exceed 90%; and that space objects operating in the protected regions, which are not considered to be at low risk, shall be “prepared for removal”. We aim to present how both, protecting our space-based infrastructure through such requirements and the development of related technologies, contribute to the sustainable utilisation of space as an integral part of our modern society.
Tim FLOHRER (Fri,) studied this question.