The February 10th collision of the two satellites resulted in the generation of space junk that now circles Earth and threatens spacecraft from a host of nations. A proposal has been made during the 46th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) for a space traffic control system. This collision has spotlighted the need for an International Civil Space Situational Awareness system. The concept was proposed February 17 in Vienna, Austria during the 46th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).

Brian Weeden, Technical Consultant for Secure World Foundation (SWF), noted the February 10th collision of the two satellites resulted in the generation of space junk that now circles Earth and threatens spacecraft from a host of nations.

“This collision is yet another example of the potential fragility of Earth orbit and the need for increased awareness,” Weeden told the subcommittee. As to the root cause of last week’s collision, Weeden used the example of driving a car with the windows blacked out. Even with a GPS device to display the car’s position on the road, without having information available regarding the locations or actions of other cars on the road makes driving impossible with collisions. “This environment of limited information is the same in which many of the satellites in Earth orbit are operated today,” Weeden said. “The owner or operator of a particular satellite usually has excellent knowledge about the position of that satellite in space, but little to no information about the locations of other objects around them,” he added. "The owner of the satellite which could have maneuvered did not know about the impending close approach.

Weeden advised the subcommittee that, unfortunately, most actors in space do not have the resources or capacity to provide the critical space situational awareness information necessary to make safe and secure decisions regarding actions in space. “The few States that do have the resources to provide this information,” Weeden said, “are often limited by national security or military restrictions from sharing it with other actors.”

SWF believes that the solution to this problem is the creation of an International Civil Space Situational Awareness system. The goal of this system would be to provide all space actors access to the tools needed for safe and sustainable activity in Earth orbit. The two key tools this system would provide are sensor data and analytical capacity to utilize that data in decision-making processes. The concept of space situational awareness (SSA) is not new — it has been an important part of military space activities for several years. But like many other types of information, there is also a need for SSA in the civil world. The fundamental difference between the international civil SSA system SWF is advocating and that used by the military is in the types of information provided. Civil SSA only needs to focus on the location of an object in Earth orbit and a point of contact for that object, along with information about space weather. The additional military requirements of determining function, intent, and capabilities and limitations are not intended to be part of a civil SSA system. One potential model would have each participant in the system selecting what data they provide to a central clearing house. All participants would have access to all of the shared data in the clearing house, enabling them to do their own independent analysis. All participants would also have access to analytical support from the central data clearing house to offset the lack of indigenous capability.

(Credits: top, this non-functional Russian Cosmos 2251 spacecraft collided with a commercial Iridium 22 satellite earlier this month — the first accidental hypervelocity collision of two intact satellites, photo courtesy of NASA — bottom, Iridium satellite image, courtesy of Iridium Satellite LLC)