Nasa’s spacecraft collision with asteroid renews calls for space debris crackdown

Earth’s orbit is ‘littered’ with space debris, causing near-collisions, a space lawyer says
Miriam Burrell27 September 2022

It would be “near impossible” for the US or Nasa to be held liable if space debris from its deliberate collision between a spacecraft and asteroid damaged another nation’s spacecraft, a senior space lawyer has said.

The successful collision was designed to create valuable data for scientists to “better prepare” for the possibility of having to deflect an asteroid that poses a threat to Earth in future.

The crash, which happened in Deep Space just after midnight on Tuesday BST, was watched by millions across the world and hailed a success by Nasa.

While the mission has been widely accepted as necessary and valuable for the protection of mankind, one senior space lawyer said it highlights the need for an update to archiac space law surrounding space debris.

Rachael O’Grady, partner in the international arbitration practice at Mayer Brown, told the Standard: “If a bit of rock from the asteroid…then causes damage to another spacecraft, arguably there would be no liability for that because that’s not a spacecraft causing damage.

“If it’s a bit of spacecraft causing damage [to another nation’s spacecraft], then arguable the launching state would be liable if it could be proved that it was deliberate.”

Nasa has successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid
Handout/PA

But Ms O’Grady said it’s “near impossible” to prove liability under current laws.

She did admit that it is very unlikely that the collision between the Dart spacecraft and Dimorphos asteroid would cause damage to another nation’s satellite or spacecraft.

But she said it raises questions about increasing near-collisions already happening in Earth’s orbit which is “littered” with space debris.

“If it was closer to Earth it would be extremely likely a collision would occur because of the congestion,” Ms O’Grady said.

She said near-collisions happening among space debris in Earth’s orbit are much more frequent, and laws need to be tightened up.

“Even though what happened last night is a great thing and should be encouraged…it is dangerous from a legal perspective because the more and more that happens in space...without updating the rules… the harder it’s going to be to find a set of rules people are happy to agree to.”

Infographic showing the effect of DART’s impact on the orbit of Dimorphos
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

The current international framework relating to reliability in space has gaps, she said.

The Outer Space Treaty, created in 1967 in the middle of Cold War, instructs that states need to bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, rather than private entities such as Nasa.

The Liability Convention, created in 1972, builds on that, slightly. It created a liability for damage caused by space objects, therefore making states responsible for damage caused by space objects - damage being loss of life or injury to property.

That would be if one satellite crashed into another, Ms O’Grady explained, but not if pieces of an asteroid for instance, caused damage.

“That’s not necessarily caught by the liability convention.

“If this spacecraft that plunged into an asteroid and smashed it into thousands of pieces, if one of those pieces smashed into another satellite and caused damage, it’s going to be very difficult to prove where that bit of statellite came from. It’s just a piece of metal essentially.”

Ms O’Grady said liability laws are “really out of date” and do not match up with advancements in space currently.

But she admits it would be a challenge to have every state agree to a new set of international space laws.

“I do think there should be stricter guidelines for any debris caused in Earth’s Orbit otherwise we run into the risk of not being able to use it as we want to in future,” she said.

She said states need to create “soft law” guidelines with more accountability and public awareness.

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