SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT MAKES SENSE

摘要

Space traffic management is not a new subject. Several steps have already been taken in the past, such as the adoption of five international treaties, the adoption of space debris mitigation guidelines, the practice of collision avoidance maneuvers and the practice of traffic separation in the geostationary orbit.rnThere are several further steps which would significantly strengthen space traffic management: 1) international law should recognize the existence of space debris and make clear their legal position, 2) the United Nations registry of objects launched into outer space should be complete, timely, of a uniform format, and should contain significant data, in order to provide reliable information on "what is up there", 3) of a major consequence would be a closer cooperation between the launching agencies, the United Nations, and the International Telecommunication Union, establishing a correlation between orbiting spacecraft and radio stations operating on board these objects. This last point could make the problem of the so called "paper satellites" transparent and better understood.