IMPACTS OF SPACE DEBRIS:

Orbital debris no longer serves a useful purpose, such as decommissioned

àsatellites and parts of spacecraft. This debris—also known as “space junk”—
lingers above the Earth’s atmosphere for

years until it decays, deorbits, explodes, or collides with another object thus
creating more debris. The amount of

orbital debris has increased exponentially over the last 60 years due to (1)
accumulating and increasing amounts of

satellites and other objects launched into space by public, civil, and private
entities from around the globe and

(2) intentional and accidental spacecraft explosions and collisions.

Millions of pieces of orbital debris exist in low Earth orbit (LEO)—at least
26,000 the size of a softball or larger that could destroy a satellite on impact;
over 500,000 the size of a marble big enough to cause damage to spacecraft
or satellites; and over 100 million the size of a grain of salt that could
puncture a spacesuit. Moreover, the growing volume of orbital debris
threatens the loss of important space-based applications used in daily life,
such as weather forecasting, telecommunications, and global positioning
systems that are dependent on a stable space environment.

Types of Space Debris:

● Below 1 cm: Estimated to exceed 128 million fragments, mostly

undetectable,

● Between 1 and 10 cm: Approximately 900,000 fragments ranging from the

size of a marble to a tennis ball.

Tiny objects such as eraser can cause huge immeasurable damage to the
atmosphere, it might even lead to disasters.

A simple thing such as needle also is capable of this.

As delegate of Switzerland we look forward to create systems

WELCOME SPEECH:

Res pective chairs and esteemed delegates,

Space Debris are millions of fragments spread over. There are 1
trillion fragments in space.Since the 1960’s many satellites have been
launched resulting in damage
Switzerland is a spacefaring nation. As a founding member of ESA,
Switzerland has been involved in Europe's aerospace activities since
its inception. Each year, it contributes CHF 160 million to the
European space budget. However, its contribution is more than
financial.Switzerland’s main role is in developing and building the
subsystems used in space.
We can assure that our subsystems help us to manage the usages of
space debris in space.
These range from entire structures to optical, mechanical and
electronic modules, and include scientific instruments and ground
equipment. The Swiss space industry comprises more than 20
companies. Approximately 30 academic and research institutes also
work in the field.

Our organization also ensures that our mechanical equipment helps

us to remove the debris.
As of conclusion, Switzerland is a nation which looks forward in
making subsystems which a re effective in space and making debris
free.

ROLE OF SWITZERLANDIN ADRESSING THE DEBRIS:

Europe is at the forefront of this clean-up. As part of
its RemoveDEBRIS mission, the agency has designed a small satellite
equipped with a harpoon and a net to capture space debris. The
technology was partly developed in Switzerland. The Swiss Center for
Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) in Neuchâtel is one of the
mission’s key scientific and industrial partners and has been
commissioned to supply a vision-based navigation system. The device
lights up the object to be captured and then accurately measures the
distance to the debris. The technology reconstructs a 3D image of any
debris in the proximity. This equipment was designed in a partnership
with Airbus and is based on a system developed at CSEM used to
steer autonomous land and space vehicles.
Two other demonstrations to capture debris have been completed
successfully, the most recent was in March 2019. However, there
remains a fourth key step for RemoveDEBRIS. Before it completes its
mission, the satellite will have to slow down by deploying a drag sail,
which will ensure it deorbits in approximately eight weeks before being
destroyed in the Earth's atmosphere. Without the drag sail, it would
take two and a half years for the satellite to deorbit on its own. This
will prevent RemoveDEBRIS from turning into yet more debris.

SPACES LAWS OF SWITZERLAND:

The Federal Council recently adopted a new national space policy, which sets
the course for Switzerland's future space activities. The policy includes the
following goals:

 securing Switzerland's access to knowledge, data and services that are in

the country's interest;
 ensuring that Switzerland is aware of its dependence on space
infrastructure and addressing risks with targeted measures;
  promoting a sustainable and secure use of outer space;
 strengthening Switzerland's status as a hub for research and innovation in
space activities;
 positioning Switzerland as a global hub for specialised and innovative
space companies; and
 ensuring that Swiss players in the space sector, including user groups, are
well networked and work together closely.

Switzerland will continue to work closely with international partners within

and outside Europe. The new policy intends to strengthen international law,
as well as global and European space governance.
Switzerland also intends to contribute to programmes as part of its
membership in the European Space Agency and the European Organization
for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, as well as through its
participation in the Galileo and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay
Service part of the European Union's space programme.

Refining national space law

To date, Switzerland has ratified four of the five UN space treaties, namely:

 the 1967 Outer Space Treaty;

 the 1968 Rescue Agreement;
 the 1972 Liability Convention; and
 the 1975 Registration Convention.

Only the 1979 Moon Convention has not been ratified.

The reason Switzerland has enacted its own national space legislation is that
the global space law system has been decentralised. While the UN
framework constitutes the nucleus of space law and lays down a solid legal
foundation, numerous public and private entities are now involved in a broad
range of space activities, including telecoms services, remote sensing, global
navigation services, space tourism and space mining. With the ongoing trend
of space commercialisation, the existing body of treaty-based international
space law is increasingly outdated. This makes the need for national space
law in Switzerland even stronger.

WAYS TO REDUCE SPACE HAZARDS

Finding 1: The future debris hazard can be significantly ameliorated

without exorbitant costs by ending or sharply reducing the number
of breakups of spacecraft and rocket bodies and, to a lesser extent,
by reducing the amount of mission-related debris released in
spacecraft deployment and operations. Methods to achieve both
these goals exist, are relatively inexpensive, and have been proven
in orbit. While implementing these methods will reduce the total
number of objects in orbit, it will not, however, significantly reduce
the total mass of objects in orbit.

Finding 2: Deorbiting or accelerating the orbital decay of spacecraft

and rocket bodies at the end of their functional lifetimes can reduce
the total amount of mass and cross-sectional area in orbit. The
difficulty and cost of such maneuvers vary depending on the initial
orbit, the capabilities of the space vehicle involved, and the desired
reduction in orbital lifetime. In general, significant reductions in
orbital lifetime can be achieved with much less fuel than deorbiting
would require.

Finding 3: Reorbiting spacecraft and rocket bodies into disposal

orbits can reduce the debris hazard in their original orbit, but it is
not a permanent solution since the debris remains in Earth orbit.
Decisions to use a disposal orbit must balance the reduction in the
long-term hazard to functional spacecraft against the cost of the
maneuver, including the cost of carrying the required fuel and/or
the need for premature shutdown. Disposal orbits are not a useful
alternative within LEO; opinion within both the committee and the
space debris community is divided as to whether they should be
used by all spacecraft and rocket bodies in GEO.

Finding 4: The active removal of debris will not be an economical

means of reducing the debris hazard in the foreseeable future.
Design of future spacecraft and launch vehicles for autonomous
deorbiting, lifetime reduction, or reorbiting is a far more economical
means of reducing the collision hazard.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 1995.

Orbital Debris: A Technical Assessment. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/4765.
Our Atmosphere filled with various junk, is not that sufficient to
remove.

So here are few solutions which might help reduce the risk :

1.Sending robots to space.

An effective method to make a debris free environment is by

sending machines and robots to space. Now it might sound odd at
first but as humans lack of oxygen in space which could lead to
health complications, it is necessary that we send robots . But
how? Well, by simply programming them. Robots can go to space
to remove the existing junk.

The Swiss start-up Clearspace has been investigating this

question since it was founded in 2018 by engineer Luc Piguet
as a spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Lausanne (EPFL). The result is a small spaceship designed to
dispose of space debris in the long term. A maiden mission is
planned for the coming years.