International Interdisciplinary Congress on Space Debris - Part I
May. 7, 2009 to May. 9, 2009
- Day, Chancellor, Hall, Maxwell Cohen Moot Court (room 100), 3644 Peel Street
Although the space age has brought about many benefits for all humankind, these benefits have not come without consequences. Space-faring nations are creating environmental damages that could have long-term effects. The most immediate of these is space debris, the nonfunctional satellites, launch vehicles and related objects that orbit the Earth uncontrolled.
On 10 February 2009, an inactive Cosmos-2251 satellite and an active commercial Iridium-33 satellite collided in low-Earth orbit at an altitude of about 800 kilometres above Siberia. This created a large cloud of space debris, which could remain in orbit possibly for decades and continue threatening other active satellites. The loss of Iridium-33 disrupted telecommunication service to a section of Iridium customers.
The growing awareness of the impact of space debris upon the safety of space operations and space-based assets has encouraged some space actors to take steps to mitigate the production of new debris through the development and implementation of national and international debris mitigation measures. In 2007, the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) adopted Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, which were subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly (hereinafter referred to as UN COPUOS Guidelines).
- To assess the value of the UN COPUOS Guidelines
- To assess current efforts to implement the UN COPUOS Guidelines
- To examine further legal, organizational and technical foundations for possible national, regional, and international implementation
- Examine other international space safety & security endeavours and assess whether they are complementary to the UN COPUOS Guidelines.
- To propose specific and viable policy and regulatory steps (mechanisms) to monitor and reduce the space debris risks.
To find out more on this Congress, please see the programme and backgrounder or contact Ms. Catherine Doldirina.
Organisation
Organised by the McGill University Institute of Air and Space Law, in collaboration with the Cologne University Institute of Air and Space Law (Germany) and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (The Netherlands), and sponsored by the Erin J. C. Arsenault Trust and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
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