World Space Week: Junk in space

16,233 views ・ 2021-10-07

BBC Learning English


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Hundreds of new satellites are launched every year,
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but what happens to the old ones?
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Space is getting crowded...
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so we'll show you what the law says about who is responsible
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and what happens if things start crashing into each other.
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Is space junk putting our way of life at risk?
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And what happened when NASA's Skylab fell from the sky...
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The European Space Agency estimates there are currently
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170 million bits of rubbish orbiting the Earth.
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How did they get there?
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And could they be a more serious problem than you think?
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Space travel is not something to take for granted.
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It could actually become impossible,
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dramatically impacting our daily lives.
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In 1978, NASA scientist Donald J Kessler predicted
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that as we keep launching things into orbit,
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more and more of them could hit each other,
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breaking up into smaller bits.
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Those bits hit other objects and break again...
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...and again.
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Eventually, the amount of space debris
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could make it unsafe for any space travel –
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or even satellites for things like GPS,
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television, or weather forecasts.
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This is called the Kessler syndrome.
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Professor Moriba Jah is taking this very seriously.
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His map tracks all known human-made objects in space
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to help scientists monitor and predict their behaviour.
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This is what I call a super-spreader event:
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large rocket bodies that have been up there for decades,
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that are pretty much ticking time-bombs
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and that at some point, they will either explode
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or something will hit them
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and they'll become many tens of thousands of pieces.
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The map is tracking 200 potential 'super-spreader events'.
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These rocket bodies belong to at least three different countries.
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So, with the danger of satellites crashing increasing,
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here's space lawyer Jessica Noble
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to explain what that means and who is responsible.
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Right now, if...
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if a satellite crashes into another...
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another object, whether that is in space or on Earth,
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the state that launched that satellite is the one
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who is responsible for that damage and for any clean-up.
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However, right now there are no explicit laws
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regarding removal of debris or dead satellites in orbit.
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However, there have been norms and guidelines
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that states have been working on to address that very issue.
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When a country launches a satellite, it is responsible for it
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and any damage it might cause,
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though the law does not fully address this issue yet.
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What about the environment in space?
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Does the law protect it from damage?
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In the Outer Space Treaty, one of the articles addresses
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protection of the outer space environment
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and requires that states conducting activities
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in outer space do so in a manner
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which avoids harmful contamination of the...
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the moon and other celestial bodies.
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However, this term 'harmful contamination' is not really...
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is not well understood at this point.
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We don't know exactly what that means,
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as it relates to conducting activities in outer space
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and that's something that we're...
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there we're trying to figure out right now.
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The Outer Space Treaty, one of the oldest bits of international space law,
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was created to protect the space environment,
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but it's not exactly clear on what it means about pollution.
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So, has the situation changed since the treaty was written?
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Is it still good enough?
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The treaty might have come about in 1967,
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but the authors of the treaty did a good job
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of leaving the language broad enough
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to account for different types of activities in space.
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It is still the backbone of all of our activities
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around the globe, in space,
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and has provided a good platform for those activities.
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There's always room for... for change
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when we think about norms
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or how we approach those activities,
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but the treaty itself as the foundational law
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is still relevant and still applicable today.
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Jessica's opinion is that the Outer Space Treaty was written in a way
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that makes it flexible enough to cope with all the changes
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and the new problems we face in space.
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So, laws make it clear who's responsible for crashes,
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but there's still work to be done on pollution.
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But what happens when something falls out of orbit...
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...and down to Earth?
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That's exactly what happened to the US space laboratory Skylab.
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At the end of its life in 1979,
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it was supposed to break apart and fall into the sea.
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That didn't go to plan.
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Most of it did end up in the Indian Ocean,
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but some, including this bit, landed in Western Australia.
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No one was hurt, luckily, but what laws dealt with this?
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Has the law changed since then?
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The law regarding damages from...
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from space to Earth is contained in the liability convention.
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And that convention – that was a treaty that came into force in 1972
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and that is still the same today.
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It... it relates to...
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it deals with space objects hitting the Earth
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and it deals with space objects hitting each other up in space.
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But there's a different type of liability
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that applies in space to one that applies on Earth.
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A law called the Liability Convention of 1972
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still deals with space objects hitting the Earth,
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so the law hasn't changed since Skylab crashed.
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So, if something hit my house, what could I do?
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The law does permit you to sue what's known as the launching state,
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who is responsible for that piece of space junk
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that crashed into a house or landed on your property,
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if... if you incur damage.
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If you have damage as a result – that's....
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that's physical injury or damage to property –
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then you have a right to claim compensation for that damage.
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And you can do it in one of two ways:
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you can have your country, your state,
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make a claim against that other state who was responsible for that damage;
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or you can go to that state's own courts
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and you can make a claim yourself.
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But you cannot do both at the same time.
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If your house gets hit by something from space,
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you can claim damages in one of two ways:
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either through your own government or via the other country's courts.
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So, what about protecting the environment
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from crashes and accidents?
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Many states require you to get a licence,
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to provide them with an environmental protection plan.
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They need to see what you're going to do,
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with respect to protecting the environment,
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before they issue you with a licence.
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So, in that regard states
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and their domestic national concerns
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are ahead of the game, regarding international law,
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which doesn't impose those same requirements.
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Yet, because of that though, I think it's only a matter of time
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before these environmental controls that are imposed nationally
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will find international expression
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and be part of international law.
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Some countries require that you have a licence to launch a spacecraft.
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To get this, you need an environmental protection plan,
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but there isn't an international law about this yet.
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The law tries to keep our satellites and spacecraft safe from junk,
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and tries to protect us, here on Earth.
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But it's clear there's still work to be done for lawyers!
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