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Four steps to global management of space traffic

Jamie Morin sets out the elements required to track satellites and avoid crashes.
  1. Jamie Morin

    1. Jamie Morin is executive director of the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, USA, which runs a federally funded research and development centre in support of the US space enterprise. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Space Technology, and previously served in the US Department of Defense.

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Space is getting crowded. Today, we can track more than 20,000 artificial objects that orbit Earth — including 1,500 working satellites and a plethora of expired craft, used boosters and other debris. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Later this year, ten times as many objects could be revealed when the US Air Force switches on its Space Fence (see go.nature.com/2dxztu3). This powerful radar, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and costing US$1.6 billion, will make 1 million observations a day.

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Nature 567, 25-27 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00732-7

Updates & Corrections

  • Clarification 27 March 2019: The graphic ‘Traffic jam’ has been updated to clarify that not all 12,000 SpaceX satellites will orbit at 1,325 km; in fact, around 7,500 of them will fly at very low Earth orbit (340 km).

References

  1. Federal Aviation Administration. Air Traffic by the Numbers (FAA, 2018).

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  2. Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. Stability of the Future LEO Environment IADC-12-08, Rev. 1, January 2013 (IADC, 2013).

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  3. McLeary, P. ‘Space Mystery: Are Russian Doll Sats a Threat?’ Breaking Defense (16 August 2018).

  4. Gleason, M. P. & Cottom, T. U.S. Space Traffic Management: Best Practices, Guidelines, Standards and International Considerations (The Aerospace Corporation, 2018).

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  5. Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee. IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines IADC-02-01, Revision 1, September 2007 (IADC, 2007).

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Competing Interests

J.M. is an employee of The Aerospace Corporation, a US non-profit organization. Its work on US space programmes includes technical support to various space traffic management and space situational awareness activities.

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