The sustainable use of the orbit resource: Protected regions and zoning of Earth orbits from the perspective of public international law

摘要

In light of increasing physical congestion of the most highly used Earth orbits it has been identified that "[e]fforts to tackle the problem of space debris fall into three major categories: debris mitigation, active debris removal, and space traffic management."~1 From the perspective of international law this triad raises the question of how these categories relate to each other and how, in future, they can be further elaborated or integrated. In order to approach this issue, the paper takes a 'spatial viewpoint' as its baseline and focuses on two categories. For example, it can be noted that the non-binding IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines refer to LEO and GEO as 'protected regions'. Further, the 2006 IAA Cosmic Study on Space Traffic Management suggests 'zoning' for the management of key Earth orbits. The paper attempts to better understand these 'spatial notions' or 'area-based management tools' and investigates if and how they are interlinked.