Unbridled Space Exploration and the Problem of Space Debris: Creating a veritable junkyard in the space?

Abstract

From weather reporting to tracking ecological changes, from live telecast of various events to military intelligence, satellites have become indispensable in today’s world. Consequently, exploration of Air space, Outer space and Celestial bodies has grown exponentially. More and more countries and private companies are embarking on space missions, space tourism and space mining. The lower orbit of the Earth contains about 11,500 tonnes of all space objects. The unbridled space exploration has brought with it the problem of space debris, collisions and re-entry of space objects into the Earth’s atmosphere. These have the potential of endangering life and environment on Earth. Also, future space operations would be jeopardised. There is a need to take pre-emptive steps to mitigate the problem of space debris. It is imperative to regulate space exploration so as to leave a sustainable space environment for the future generation of astronauts and astronomers. The present paper draws the attention to the problem of unbridled space exploration, analyses the efficacy of the various international instruments governing the space exploration and suggests measures to mitigate the problem of space debris.