A US family whose home was hit by space debris earlier this year is seeking compensation from the American space agency NASA for property damage and mental anguish. The metallic cylinder slab punched a hole in the roof through two layers of ceiling in Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples in March. Back then, NASA said that the object was part of a 2.9-ton pallet of used batteries jettisoned from the International Space Station in March 2021. Mr Otero said his son was nearly injured by the impact. 

Now, law firm Cranfill Summer said in a press release that it filed a claim on behalf of Mr Otero and his family. It listed damages including non-insured property damage loss, business interruption, emotional/mental anguish and the costs for assistance from third parties. 

According to the BBC, Attorney Mica Nguyen Worthy said space debris “is a real serious issue because of the increase in space traffic in recent years”. “My clients are seeking adequate compensation to account for the stress and impact that this event had on their lives,” she added. 

Separately, speaking to CBS affiliate Wink-TV Mr Otero said that the space junk created a tremendous sound” as it blasted into his home. “I was shaking. I was completely in disbelief. What are the chances of something landing on my house with such force to cause so much damage,” Mr Otero said.

Also Read | NASA Shares Stunning Pic Of Rare “Gigantic Jets” Spotted Over Himalayas

The US space agency confirmed that the debris was from its flight support equipment. It was a metal support used to hold old batteries on a disposal pallet jettisoned from the station in 2021. While most of the pallet was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, this particular piece survived the fiery re-entry.

 “The hardware was expected to fully burn up during entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024. However, a piece of hardware survived and impacted a home in Naples, Florida,” the agency said. The ISS will “perform a detailed investigation” on how the debris survived burn-up, according to Nasa. 

The BBC reported that the agency now has 6 months to respond to Mr Otero’s claims. 

Washington:

An American family is claiming more than $80,000 from NASA after a small piece of debris fell from space and smashed through the roof of their Florida home, a law firm said Friday.

The problem of space trash has risen in tandem with increased spatial traffic, and NASA’s response could set a precedent for how future claims are handled, law firm Cranfill Sumner said in a statement.

On March 8, the object weighing just 700 grams hit Alejandro Otero’s home in Naples, Florida, making a hole in the roof.

NASA later confirmed it was part of a cargo pallet of used batteries that was released from the International Space Station as waste in 2021.

Instead of fully disintegrating before falling to Earth, a section remained intact when it reentered the atmosphere, the US space agency said.

Otero’s son was at the house at the moment of impact, according to the law firm, which said that NASA has six months to respond to its claim.

“My clients are seeking adequate compensation to account for the stress and impact that this event had on their lives,” said lawyer Mica Nguyen Worthy.

“They are grateful that no one sustained physical injuries from this incident, but a ‘near miss’ situation such as this could have been catastrophic.

“There could have been serious injury or a fatality.”

NASA did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for a comment.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A man in North Carolina was left astonished after he found a massive, mysterious object on a remote hiking trail. According to the New York Post, Justin Clontz, who is a groundskeeper at a luxury campsite, said he was “shocked” to find the massive object covered in dense metal sheets held together by unearthly-looking bolts.

The debris, which appeared to be covered in burnt carbon fibre, is at least 3 feet wide, about an inch thick, and stands at nearly 4 feet tall, according to the outlet. Though the object was burned, the surrounding area showed no signs of damage.

“It’s once in a lifetime you know, it doesn’t happen every day. We don’t know what it is. We just know that it’s not from up here,” Mr Clontz told a local TV station.

He explained, ”I just tied a rope to it and drugged it out with a lawn mower. It’s a one in a million chance that it lands especially if it landed somewhere off the trail in the woods you’d have never found it, but it just happened to land on the trail.”

See the pic here:
 

Man astonished by finding mysterious object along NC mountain trail
byu/gaukonigshofen inNorthCarolina

Experts speculate the object could have fallen to earth from SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, according to Space.com. Astronomer Jonathon McDowell added on X that the debris ”definitely looks consistent with being a bit of the Crew-7 Dragon’s trunk which reentered on a path right over this location on Tuesday.”

Notably, The Dragon spacecraft consists of two main parts: the capsule and the trunk. The trunk supports the spacecraft during ascent and carries unpressurized cargo. Typically, the trunk burns up in the atmosphere during reentry, but occasionally, parts can survive and fall back to Earth.

The owner of the campsite Glamping Collective said that they plan on reaching out to aerospace experts to figure out what exactly it is and where it came from.

”Space debris was not on our list of things we expected to be having conversations about. The only thing we’ve been able to come up with is that it’s some type of space debris that fell. It doesn’t look like anything off of an aeroplane,” said Matt Bare, owner of The Glamping Collective.

No injuries were reported in connection with the suspected piece of space junk.

The story so far: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said its PSLV-C58/XPoSat mission has practically left zero debris in earth’s orbit. The space agency explained that the last stage of the Polar Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV) used in the mission was transformed into a kind of orbital station — called the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module-3 (POEM-3) — before it was left to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere instead of floating in orbit once its mission was completed.

ISRO said that after it completed the primary mission of injecting all satellites into their target orbits, the fourth stage of the PSLV was transformed into the POEM-3. It was subsequently de-orbited from 650 kilometres to 350 kilometres, rendering it more susceptible to being pulled towards the earth and burning up in the atmosphere. ISRO also said it “passivated the stage,” meaning dumped its fuel, to avoid an explosion that could have flung small pieces of debris into orbit.

What is POEM?

Developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) as an inexpensive space platform, POEM uses the spent fourth stage of a PSLV rocket as an orbital platform. Used for the first time in the PSLV-C53 mission in June 2022, ISRO had POEM orbit the earth as a stabilised platform to perform in-orbit scientific experiments with various payloads.

POEM is powered by solar panels mounted on the fuel tank of the rocket’s fourth stage and a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery. It has a dedicated navigation, guidance, and control (NGC) system to stabilise its altitude along with helium control thrusters. The NGC system has four Sun sensors, a magnetometer, and gyroscopes, and talks to ISRO’s NavIC satellite constellation for navigation. POEM also has a telecommand system to communicate with the ground station.

ISRO first demonstrated the reuse of the spent fourth stage of its rocket in its PSLV C-44 mission in 2019. After satellites were injected in the target orbits, the fourth stage, carrying a student payload called Kalamsat-V2, was moved to a higher circular orbit of 443 km and stayed there, allowing the payload to make observations.

What has POEM-3 achieved?

ISRO launched the PSLV C-58 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on January 1, 2024. After deploying the XpoSat satellite in its desired orbit of 650 km, the fourth stage, now called POEM-3, was lowered to a 350-km high circular orbit. The lower a satellite is in orbit around the earth, the more drag it experiences and the more energy it needs to expend to stay in orbit.

POEM-3 featured nine payloads: two each from VSSC and Bellatrix Aerospace Pvt Ltd, one each from the start-ups TakeMe2Space, Inspecity Space Labs Pvt Ltd., Dhruva Space, and from LBS Institute of Technology, KJ Somaiya Institute of Technology, and ISRO’s Physics Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

POEM-3 completed 400 orbits around the earth by its 25th day. The payloads were operationalised to perform their experiments during this time. ARKA200, RUDRA, and LEAP-TD completed their respective experiments while the data from WeSAT, RSEM, and DEX were collected after every orbit for further analysis on the ground. Two fuel cells from VSSC demonstrated their ability to generate power. By January 27, 2024, all of POEM-3’s payload objectives were completed.

For two months, POEM-3 prepared for its re-entry while ISRO tracked it with its Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) stations in Bengaluru, Lucknow, Mauritius, Sriharikota, Port Blair, Thiruvananthapuram, Brunei, and Biak (Indonesia) and the Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR) at Sriharikota. On March 21, POEM-3 reentered the earth’s atmosphere, meeting its fiery end.

Why is this significant?

With the rise in the number of satellites in orbit around the earth, space debris has become a pressing issue. Space debris in the low earth orbit (LEO) mainly comprises pieces of spacecraft, rockets, and defunct satellites, and the fragments of objects that have deteriorated explosively as a result of anti-satellite missile tests. This debris often flies around at high speeds of up to 27,000 kilometres per hour. Due to their sheer volume and momentum, they pose a risk to several space assets.

The LEO extends from 100 km above the earth’s surface up to 2000 km above. It includes satellites tracking intelligence data, encrypted communication, and navigation. According to ISRO’s Space Situational Assessment report 2022, the world placed 2,533 objects in space in 179 launches in 2022, up from 1860 objects in 135 launches in 2021.

Also Read | Sign of the future: On ISRO’s PSLV C58 mission

Debris also exists, but in smaller volumes, in the geosynchronous orbit (GEO), which is 36,000 km above the earth’s surface. Currently, there are 7,000 operational satellites orbiting the earth at different altitudes along with millions of pieces of space debris. The U.S. Space Command tracks and catalogues space debris larger than 10 centimetres in LEO and larger than 0.3-1 metres in GEO.

In 2022, four on-orbit break-up events occurred, contributing to most of the debris created that year:

1. March 2022: Intentional destruction of Russia’s Cosmos 1048 in an anti-satellite test adding 1408 fragments of debris
2. July 2022: Break-up of the upper stage of Japanese H-2A while deploying GOSAT-2 satellite adding 52 fragments of debris
3. November 2022: Accidental explosion of the upper stage of China’s Yunhai-3 adding 533 pieces of debris
4. November 2022: Break up of the Japanese H-2A upper stage for the deployment of GCOM satellite adding 30 pieces of debris

The latest incident of space debris causing havoc was recorded on March 8 when a chunk of metal believed to be a discarded battery pallet from the International Space Station ripped through the roof and two stories of a house in Florida. The cylindrical piece, weighing almost 1 kilogram, was recorded by the US Space Command while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico, on a path towards south-west Florida at 2.29 PM that day. Five minutes later, the security camera of the house caught the sound of the metal crashing into it. NASA is still investigating the incident.

A major contributor to the rising number of satellites is American launch-services provider company Space X, which is currently also building a large constellation of 12,000 satellites to provide internet services worldwide. The project, named Starlink, has deployed satellites in 550 km, 540-570 km, and 335-345 km orbits and is expected to be completed by 2027. SpaceX has also applied for a second generation of Starlink satellites comprising 30,000 LEO satellites.

As more communication satellites/constellations are launched and more anti-satellite tests are conducted, more on-orbit breakup and collisions occur, producing smaller and smaller fragments in orbit. The number of space objects (debris or functional equipment) greater than 10 cm in size in LEO is expected to be about 60,000 by 2030, per ISRO estimates. Space debris also leads to two major risks – it creates unusable regions of the orbit due to excessive debris, and leads to the ‘Kessler syndrome’ – creation of more debris due to cascading collisions resulting from one collision.

How are space agencies dealing with debris?

Currently, there are no international space laws pertaining to LEO debris. However, most space-exploring nations abide by the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines 2002 specified by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), which the U.N. endorsed in 2007.

The guidelines outline methods to limit accidental collisions in orbit, break-ups during operations, intentional destruction, and post-mission break-ups. They also advise against the long-term presence of spacecraft and launch vehicle orbital stages in LEO and limit their interference in the GEO region.

NASA had instituted its Orbital Debris Program in 1979 to find ways to create less orbital debris and design equipment to track and remove existing debris. Currently, the sixth U.S. Armed forces wing, called the Space Force, tracks space debris and collisions in LEO. However, the agency has not implemented any technology to clean such debris yet; most such ideas are in the conceptual stage.

Similarly, the European Space Agency (ESA) has adopted a ‘Zero Debris charter,’ which includes multiple ways to mitigate space debris. It has also called for zero space debris by 2030 and seeks that other agencies adopt it as well.

On November 5, 2022, China was widely criticised when its rocket Long March 5B plunged into the Pacific Ocean after it broke up upon re-entry. Ranking among one of history’s most damaging break-ups, one of the more than 500 pieces left of the core stage was about 30 metres long and weighed between 17 and 23 tonnes.

Days later, China deployed a large spacecraft designed to de-orbit its defunct spacecraft. The device had a very slim ‘solar sail’ attached to the payload adapter, which when unfolded expanded to a 269 square foot sheet that would push defunct rocket parts towards the earth for faster re-entry

Japan also has a project, called the Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration (CRD2), to tackle space junk. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has partnered with private space company Astroscale to assess debris in phase I of the programme. In the second phase, JAXA will launch a satellite to approach the debris and rendezvous with it before capturing and removing it from orbit. Currently, JAXA is conducting tests of this craft.

Private companies in both Japan and China are also competing for debris clean-up contracts. Japan’s Astroscale is developing a method to refuel and repair satellites in space, allowing each de-orbiting mission to operate for longer. China’s Origin Space has launched a prototype robot capable of capturing debris with a large net.

India is working to mitigate space debris. Apart from the POEM missions, ISRO has set up a Space Situational Awareness Control Centre to protect its high-value assets from close approaches and collisions with inactive satellites, pieces of orbiting objects, and even near-earth asteroids. An Indian start-up named Manastu Space is working on technologies like in-space refuelling, de-orbiting of old satellites, and satellite life extension.

• ISRO said that after it completed the primary mission of injecting all satellites into their target orbits, the fourth stage of the PSLV was transformed into the POEM-3.
• POEM is powered by by solar panels mounted on the fuel tank of the rocket’s fourth stage and a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.
• With the rise in the number of satellites in orbit around the earth, space debris has become a pressing issue.

Washington:

US authorities said they have issued a “breakthrough” first-ever fine over space debris, slapping a $150,000 penalty on a TV company that failed to properly dispose off a satellite.

On Monday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came down on Dish for “failure to properly deorbit” a satellite called EchoStar-7, in orbit since 2002.

“This marks a first in space debris enforcement by the Commission, which has stepped up its satellite policy efforts,” the FCC, which authorizes space-based telecom services, said in a statement.

As the geostationary satellite came to the end of its operational life, Dish had moved it to an altitude lower than the two parties had agreed on, where it “could pose orbital debris concerns,” the FCC said.

The commission said Dish, a US satellite television provider, pledged in 2012 to elevate the satellite to 300 kilometers (190 miles) above its operational arc.

But with fuel running low, it retired the satellite at an altitude just over 120 kilometers above the original arc.

“As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments,” said FCC enforcement bureau chief Loyaan Egal.

“This is a breakthrough settlement, making very clear the FCC has strong enforcement authority and capability to enforce its vitally important space debris rules.”

The FCC said the settlement “includes an admission of liability from the company and an agreement to adhere to a compliance plan and pay a penalty of $150,000.”

In a statement Tuesday, Dish appeared to counter the FCC over disposal requirements, and argued that the commission’s enforcement arm made “no specific findings that EchoStar-7 poses any orbital debris safety concerns.”

“As the Enforcement Bureau recognizes in the settlement, the EchoStar-7 satellite was an older spacecraft that had been explicitly exempted from the FCC’s rule requiring a minimum disposal orbit,” a Dish spokesperson said in a statement.

“DISH has a long track record of safely flying a large satellite fleet and takes seriously its responsibilities as an FCC licensee.”

Collision Risks

The US aviation regulator, FAA, recently announced its intention to reduce space debris by requiring private companies to dispose of the upper stages of rocket launch vehicles by, for example, returning them to the Earth’s atmosphere or moving them to a less congested “graveyard orbit.”

The new regulation, which has yet to be definitively adopted, already exists for government space missions.

“If left unchecked, the accumulation of orbital debris will increase the risk of collisions and clutter orbits used for human spaceflight and for satellites,” the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The European Space Agency estimates that around one million pieces of debris larger than a centimeter — big enough to “disable a spacecraft” — are in Earth’s orbit.

They are already causing problems, from a near-miss in January last year involving a Chinese satellite, to a five-millimetre hole knocked into a robotic arm on the International Space Station in 2021.

With satellites now crucial for GPS, broadband and banking data, collisions pose significant risks on Earth.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

This file computer-generated image released by the European Space Agency (ESA) on April 15, 2008 shows trackable objects in orbit around Earth. – The United States said November 8, 2021 it was investigating a “debris-generating event in outer space” after astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to prepare for a possible evacuation.
| Photo Credit: AFP

There’s a lot of trash on the Moon right now – including nearly 100 bags of human waste – and with countries around the globe traveling to the Moon, there’s going to be a lot more, both on the lunar surface and in Earth’s orbit.

In August 2023, Russia’s Luna-25 probe crashed into the Moon’s surface, while India’s Chandrayann-3 mission successfully landed in the southern polar region, making India the fourth country to land on the Moon.

With more countries landing on the Moon, people back on Earth will have to think about what happens to all the landers, waste and miscellaneous debris left on the lunar surface and in orbit.

I’m a professor of astronomy who has written a book about the future of space travel, articles about our future off-Earth, conflict in space, space congestion and the ethics of space exploration. Like many other space experts, I’m concerned about the lack of governance around space debris.

Data | Small debris orbiting Earth pose threats to space assets 

Space is getting crowded

People think of space as vast and empty, but the near-Earth environment is starting to get crowded. As many as 100 lunar missions are planned over the next decade by governments and private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Near-Earth orbit is even more congested than the space between Earth and the Moon. It’s from 100 to 500 miles straight up, compared with 240,000 miles to the Moon. Currently there are nearly 7,700 satellites within a few hundred miles of the Earth. That number could grow to several hundred thousand by 2027. Many of these satellites will be used to deliver internet to developing countries or to monitor agriculture and climate on Earth. Companies like SpaceX have dramatically lowered launch costs, driving this wave of activity.

“It’s going to be like an interstate highway, at rush hour in a snowstorm, with everyone driving much too fast,” space launch expert Johnathan McDowell told Space.com.

The problem of space junk

All this activity creates hazards and debris. Humans have left a lot of junk on the Moon, including spacecraft remains like rocket boosters from over 50 crashed landings, nearly 100 bags of human waste and miscellaneous objects like a feather, golf balls and boots. It adds up to around 200 tons of our trash.

Also Read | India has 217 space objects orbiting earth; working towards reducing space debris: Report

Since no one owns the Moon, no one is responsible for keeping it clean and tidy.

The clutter in Earth’s orbit includes defunct spacecraft, spent rocket boosters and items discarded by astronauts such as a glove, a wrench and a toothbrush. It also includes tiny pieces of debris like paint flecks.

There are around 23,000 objects larger than 10 cm (4 inches) and about 100 million pieces of debris larger than 1 mm (0.04 inches). Tiny pieces of junk might not seem like a big issue, but that debris is moving at 15,000 mph (24,140 kph), 10 times faster than a bullet. At that speed, even a fleck of paint can puncture a spacesuit or destroy a sensitive piece of electronics.

In 1978, NASA scientist Donald Kessler described a scenario where collisions between orbiting pieces of debris create more debris, and the amount of debris grows exponentially, potentially rendering near-Earth orbit unusable. Experts call this the “Kessler syndrome.”

Nobody is in charge up there

The United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967 says that no country can “own” the Moon or any part of it, and that celestial bodies should only be used for peaceful purposes. But the treaty is mute about companies and individuals, and it says nothing about how space resources can and can’t be used.

The United Nations Moon Agreement of 1979 held that the Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of humanity. However, the United States, Russia and China never signed it, and in 2016 the U.S. Congress created a law that unleashed the American commercial space industry with very few restrictions.

Because of its lack of regulation, space junk is an example of a “tragedy of the commons,” where many interests have access to a common resource, and it may become depleted and unusable to everyone, because no interest can stop another from overexploiting the resource.

Scientists argue that to avoid a tragedy of the commons, the orbital space environment should be seen as a global commons worthy of protection by the United Nations. The lead author of a Nature article arguing for a global commons filed an amicus brief – a type of outside comment offering support or expertise – on a case that went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in late 2021.

Explained | The need for space sustainability 

The author and his research collaborators argued that U.S. environmental regulations should apply to the licensing of space launches. However, the court declined to rule on the environmental issue because it said the group lacked standing.

National geopolitical and commercial interests will likely take precedence over interplanetary conservation efforts unless the United Nations acts. A new treaty may emerge from the work of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs, which in May 2023 generated a policy document to address the sustainable development of activities in space.

The U.N. can regulate the activities of only its member states, but it has a project to help member states craft national-level policies that advance the goals of sustainable development.

NASA has created and signed the Artemis Accords, broad but nonbinding principles for cooperating peacefully in space. They have been signed by 28 countries, but the list does not include China or Russia. Private companies are not party to the accords either, and some space entrepreneurs have deep pockets and big ambitions.

The lack of regulation and the current gold rush approach to space exploration mean that space junk and waste will continue to accumulate, as will the related problems and dangers.