Zero Debris Technical Booklet Published
Identifies Technical Solutions Which Will Contribute to a Zero Debris Future
The Zero Debris Community – of which ESA is a member – has published the Zero Debris Technical Booklet. The Technical Booklet is a Zero Debris Community initiative which identifies technical solutions which will contribute to a Zero Debris future. The document is a companion to the Zero Debris Charter and lays out some of the most important technical developments required to achieve the Charter’s ambitious targets.
“The publication of the Zero Debris Technical Booklet marks a significant step toward ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.”
Nick Shave, Astroscale
The Booklet serves as a resource to support the Zero Debris Community in directing its resources towards research and future technology developments. This booklet encourages stakeholders to collaborate, share knowledge, and implement effective strategies for debris reduction. The aim is to provide a clear and structured approach to meeting the 2030 targets to all space actors.
The Booklet is technically focused, non-binding, and collaborative. While the legal, regulatory, political, and financial aspects of space debris are important, they are out of scope of the Technical Booklet. The Booklet complements the Zero Debris Charter by highlighting the way forward without imposing any additional expectations on the signatories of the Charter.
The Charter lays out Principles and Targets for a debris-free space environment. The Charter’s Principles provide the ethical framework, emphasizing the need to minimize debris, mitigate its impacts, and improve understanding of the debris environment. They frame the shared responsibility of stakeholders in space activities.
Targets turn these Principles into measurable goals, setting concrete metrics, such as reducing debris risks, ensuring successful orbit clearance, and minimizing harm from re-entry by 2030. By aligning with the Charter’s Principles and Targets, the Zero Debris Booklet ensures that every technological step taken by the Zero Debris Community is towards a sustainable and debris-free environment.
Achieving a Zero Debris future is an ambitious aim but a necessary one to ensure a safe and usable orbital environment for future generations. This aim requires the effort of all stakeholders, space agencies, industry leaders, and policymakers, to innovate and act decisively – with the first issue of the Zero Debris Booklet published, we now have a blueprint for the technologies we will require.
“The publication of the Zero Debris Technical Booklet marks a significant step toward ensuring the long-term sustainability of outer space activities,” said Nick Shave, Managing Director of Astroscale Ltd. “Together with our partners in the Zero Debris community, Astroscale has been actively involved in this effort, contributing to workshops, discussions and the editorial process to identify the necessary actions and solutions. We are proud to have played an integral role in the entire process and are pleased to see these collaborative efforts reflected in this comprehensive document for responsible space actors.” Astroscale was one of over 40 organizations engaged in developing the Zero Debris Charter.
As the Zero Debris Booklet is intended to be a living document, future issues are expected to reflect new possibilities as well as highlighting the progress that has been made since the latest issue. The approach to developing future issues will be discussed in an upcoming meeting to be announced on the Clean Space Blog.