Seoul:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the ability to conduct space reconnaissance is crucial for national self defence and protection of the country’s sovereignty and North Korea will never give up efforts to possess it, state media said on Wednesday.

North Korea’s attempt to launch a spy satellite on Monday failed after the first stage booster exploded in flight.

Kim made the remarks during his visit to the country’s Academy of Defence Sciences, KCNA news agency said.

“Possessing military reconnaissance satellites is a crucial task to strengthen national self-defence deterrence and protect national sovereignty and security from potential threats … due to U.S. military acts and provocations,” he said.

Kim assailed South Korea for criticising the satellite launch and said Seoul was “playing with fire” by putting on a show of force and conducting drills involving fighter jets.

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

Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, is set to become the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist. Photo: X/@blueorigin via PTI

Earlier this month, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin announced six crew members who would be part of a forthcoming commercial flight to space. Of interest to India is one participant, Gopichand Thotakura, an Indian businessman and pilot, who is based in the United States.

While an actual launch date has not been specified, a successful trip to space could make Mr. Thotakura the first Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma, who in April 1984 became — and remains — the only Indian to have the honour, when he went aboard the Russian Soyuz T-11 spacecraft.

In a media statement, Mr. Thotakura describes himself as the “first civilian Indian astronaut”. In response to questions from The Hindu, he reasoned that he would be an astronaut because anyone who crosses the Karman Line — the boundary that separates Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, and is at about 80 km above sea level — is considered one.

Given that the New Shepard rocket (NS-25), the Blue Origin vehicle, climbs to a 100 km from the Earth’s surface, stays in space long enough for the crew aboard to experience weightlessness and allows one to observe the Earth’s curvature, it ticks all the boxes for a space trip. Rakesh Sharma, who spent a week in the Russian space station, fits the classical definition of an astronaut, however it is unclear if Mr. Thotakura would be described as one.

Until 2021, these distinctions did not matter because all human spaceflight until then involved military personnel and astronauts who were trained as such and part of missions that involved either living in space or being part of test flights.

The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which issues commercial space licences and verifies launch or re-entry vehicles that carry humans, has since 2021 stopped designating spacefarers as “astronauts”.

In 2004, the FAA had launched a “commercial astronaut wings” programme that awarded a $10 million prize to launch a reusable spacecraft that could carry people to the Karman boundary, and return and repeat a launch in two weeks. However those part of NASA’s training programme, irrespective of whether they actually go into space, are designated as astronauts though they are given different categories of astronauts depending on the activities executed.

To be eligible for these astronaut wings — specially designed insignia — one had to be part of the designated “flight crew”, or somebody who actually contributed to the launch, re-entry, or other operations of a manned space vehicle. Ahead of India’s own preparations for the Gaganyaan mission, where two or three Air Force pilots are expected to undertake a three-day mission in low-Earth orbit reportedly in 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred astronaut wings on the four selected pilots. Though not confirmed, there are reports that one of the pilots may make a commercial trip to the International Space Station as part of a U.S.-India agreement later this year.

In 2021, the FAA said that the creation of commercial space companies, meant the 2004 programme objectives were met. Beginning 2021, anyone who went at least 50 miles (80 km) above the Earth’s surface in a FAA-approved launch — irrespective of nationality — would merit a mention on the agency’s website as space travellers but would no longer get these commercial wings. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, the owners of the two commercial companies and spacefarers, received wings as their flights were in 2021. By these criteria then, Mr. Thotakura could make it to the website but not merit commercial wings. Blue Origin confers its own custom-made wings to successful participants.

The term astronaut reflects a U.S.-centric view of space-faring. Russian astronauts are called ‘cosmonauts’, and Chinese ones ‘taikonauts’, and prospective Indians, are colloquially ‘vyomanauts’ or ‘gaganauts’, suggesting that countries are free to define space travellers in their own terms. S. Somnath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told The Hindu that were Mr. Thotukura’s flight to be successful and prior to the Gaganyaan missions he would be the “…second Indian in space and technically, an astronaut.”

Mr. Thotakura, born in Vijaywada and schooled in Visakhapatnam, studied aeronautical engineering and trained to be a pilot in the United States. “I’ve always aspired to go to space. When I came to the U.S. in 2010, this meant either going via NASA or being a U.S. citizen and these were barriers for me. Blue Origin opened up opportunities,” he said.

Blue Origin doesn’t disclose the cost of space travel but a Virgin Galactic ticket in 2021 cost $450,000. Blue Origin has taken celebrities for free and a seat on its 2021 flight was reportedly auctioned for $28 million. Yet another has coughed up $1 million and some of those selected are sponsored.

Mr. Thotakura, who is the co-founder of Preserve Life Corp, an Atlanta-based health and wellness company didn’t disclose how he bagged a seat on NS-25. “There was no real selection process or criteria. I was hell bent on getting aboard a manned mission. It is a desire to carry Indian blood (ethnicity) to space,” he added.

In his mission, he would be carrying postcards and “different kinds of payloads” that would later serve as memorabilia.

“I want to show that you have to have a dream and it is not really important if you are a scientist, engineer or a pilot to be able to go to space,” he added. “India launched Chandrayaan and Mars missions at a fraction of the costs it would take internationally. With just a little bit more funding, India could easily be a pioneer in commercial space travel.”

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.

A model of the lunar rover in HAKUTO-R lunar exploration program by “ispace” is pictured at a venue to monitor its landing on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, April 26, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Japan will provide a subsidy of up to 12 billion yen ($80 million) to moon exploration startup ispace (9348.T) as part of a grant programme for innovative ventures, industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Friday.

Tokyo-based ispace aims to launch its second moon lander next year and start a NASA-sponsored moonshot in 2026, following its failed first lunar landing attempt in April this year.

Also Read | Japan launches rocket with lunar lander and X-ray telescope to explore origins of the universe

The Japanese government’s grant will be used to develop a new spacecraft, tentatively called “Series 3”, which aims to carry more than 100-kg loads to the moon’s surface by 2027, ispace said in a corporate disclosure.

The grant would not have any material impact on the company’s near-term earnings forecast since it relates to a future mission, ispace added. The company has expected to book a net loss of 4.5 billion yen in the current financial period ending in March 2024.

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.