Astronautical: The depths and heights of debris
Liza Fust, Director of Operations
6 minute read
A fridge. A whole, doggone, Frigidaire refrigerator. I have so many questions. One, how did they haul it to get it there? Two, how did no one see? I mean for it to have ended up where it did, they had to have been big, and loud, can you imagine the splash that would have made right downtown? Oh, and obviously, three, why?
The Mining Journal headline reads “Keeping our waters clean is key to positive future”
MARQUETTE While many may think of Lake Superior’s waters along the Upper Peninsula shoreline as pristine and unspoiled, those who dive beneath the surface often find some disappointing evidence to the contrary.
For example, car batteries, a refrigerator, four tons of tires and an assortment of other litter was found and removed from the lake by divers during last summer’s Lake Superior Underwater Cleanup at Mattson Lower Harbor Park in Marquette. While it’s always deeply disappointing to find litter in the lake, it’s especially distressing when we consider that tires, car batteries and refrigerators can leach hazardous chemicals into the lake, impacting water quality, the marine ecosystem and human health. (2020)
KMI has chosen to set down its roots on the shores of Lake Superior, a beautiful and fierce inland sea, the largest lake in the world by surface area (Lake Baikal in Russia beats us out on depth and therefore volume, but don’t call us shallow). Oh how beautiful is the poetry, the songs, the art that this lake inspires! Look back at the government cartographers who tried to chart this area accurately, and see how they spoke of this shoreline, a mystery of sandstone cliffs and clinging pine trees over raging late-autumn waters. Lake Superior is a dangerous lake with cold currents rippling below the surface, and in the cold months, breaking free to crash far over the shoreline. All who come here are taught to respect it - but not all do.
Hence the refrigerator. For context, Lower Harbor is pictured below. It’s right downtown, a pinpoint at the iconic Ore Dock from which the town has spiraled and grown. This is where the ships came in and to which the trains hauled Upper Peninsula bounty for the freighters to take back out. The grand banks, churches, and library are there, built to look out over this community harbor. So not exactly a quiet spot to drop a refrigerator. What were they thinking?! What kind of damage could that do to someone’s boat? And the coolant that such refuse leaks that is hard if not impossible to track, think of the harm that’s doing. Above all, there is life in and surrounding these waters. Fish, birds, and children all enjoy these beautiful shores and fresh water. It is a space teeming with industry and life.
Images of Lower Harbor taken by Liza Fust.
So you see it now, right? Where I’m going with this? A space teeming with industry and life polluted with derelict man-made objects.
What is the equivalent of a refrigerator dumped in space? Ask someone at KMI and we can point out at least 52 of them ( *nod* to our KMI Most Wanted deck of cards depicting critical US debris in space).
The similarities between maritime and aerospace abound, from scuba and space suit design to the lexicon we use to talk about both. It is so similar, that the laws we have figured out to protect and utilize the 70% of the Earth that we all share through water - could also apply to how we share space (see this great paper to see more about the shared policy lessons). As humanity has gathered at fords, harbors, and waterways, using these as our first major transportation systems for commerce and community, we have yet to fully recognize and implement this.
Let me recap a relevant mission: After a catastrophic, high-energy collision, the Department of Defense was dispatched to coordinate the remediation of debris from an event where an operable craft was unable to navigate past an inoperable man-made object, damaging critical infrastructure. Autonomous debris-collection vehicles were utilized for collecting objects. Important note: this was a recent marine mission in 2024, not orbital. The US Army Corps of Engineers’ Baltimore Harbor’s Debris Unit contributed to the cleanup after the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on March 26, 2024, after a cargo ship struck the bridge. The collision caused 40,000 tons of precarious debris to litter the river, will cause economic impacts for years, and most importantly, it caused the loss of several lives.
Imagine a future where orbits have their own Debris Units dedicated to protecting those designated regions. Try not to imagine the future where a wayward spacecraft collides with the International Space Station (ISS), causing loss of life there as well. With there now being two stations in space, the ISS and China’s Tiangong space station, and with many stations planned for launch over the next decade, we must recognize the human lives that are and will be residing in space and the risks they face.
You have only to look at a history of shipwrecks to see how maritime collisions have caused tragedies. Not everyone can be an Unsinkable Molly Brown, and here on the Great Lakes, we recognize shipwrecks where crew were unable to abandon ship as underwater cemeteries and respect those resting places accordingly. This is not the kind of “graveyard orbit” we reference by the term in space, and I hope to never see the day when the meaning of that term changes.
Marine debris from collisions or littering has extensive impacts from harming ecosystems of marine and coastal wildlife to interfering with navigational technology - placing more lives at risk. It poses a risk to fishing industries and the boats and lives of those fishermen who must avoid debris. We see orbital debris posing much the same risk, as it threatens an ecosystem of critical satellites that civilians and defense use every day, interferes with astronomy, and is a risk to the growing space industry that covers everything from providing internet access to innovative methods of studying cancer.
What is marine debris?
“Marine debris is defined as any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment or the Great Lakes. Anything human-made and solid can become marine debris once lost or littered in these aquatic environments.” (from NOAA).
It is illegal to dispose of any garbage in all U.S. waters and
What is orbital debris?
“Orbital debris is any human-made object in orbit about the Earth that no longer serves any useful purpose” (from NASA Orbital Debris Program Office).
FCC rule “requiring satellite operators in low-Earth orbit to dispose of their satellites within 5 years of completing their missions.”
The policy for collecting marine debris is not global, and falls to no national entities but often to local jurisdictions, businesses, and nonprofits, as you may have seen with the 4Ocean campaign across YouTube. Besides those well-intentioned at keeping Earth’s waters clear for all, there are other incentives to pull debris from the depths - or from just below the surface. In International waters, according to the Law of Finds, the discoverer of a shipwreck is entitled to the full value of goods, which is different than the Law of Salvage that states the discoverer receives a portion of the value (the difference being the ownership claim on said shipwreck). Within US waters, shipwrecks fall to state jurisdiction and are the responsibility of archeologists, military, or relevant marine protection agencies. It’s pretty orderly, either finders-keepers or a set rubric of responsibility. There is a recognition of value as well as consideration of potential threats to the environment.
The policy for collecting orbital debris, however, is as of yet nonexistent. No country owns orbits on which to lay claim of their state agencies, unlike how the US has nautical boundaries before reaching international waters. There is no Law of Finds for derelict satellites in international orbits. Though a given nation may not deem its derelict satellite important enough to expend the effort to deorbit, it still doesn’t want anyone else touching it, regardless of the risks it poses to their active satellites or those of any other nation. As for the Law of Salvage, in space it would be difficult to make that apply in cases where the entity of ownership no longer exists - such as in the case of the debris of the former Soviet Union or a bankrupt company. By whom has this legacy been inherited? In the first case, the Russian Federation has claimed those assets. The issue remains for the second case. Finds and Salvage being what they are, what of the cases where debris is unrecognizable, how can ownership be detailed then? And without ownership detailed, how can action be determined?
Humanity is increasingly aware of the need to protect our water resources, our waterways, and the ecosystems they support. We are working to clean up after ourselves and prevent further pollution from occurring. It is time to turn that mindset to orbit and enact methods of Keeping Space Clear for All. Pollution is already growing exponentially in Earth’s orbit, and we are living in a critical time window for preventing debris growth before it blocks our access to space. It brings new meaning to “landlocked.” Perhaps if we can learn our lessons from marine debris, and as we implement them for orbital debris, we can stay ahead of generating lunar debris, martian debris, or debris out into the far reaches of humanity’s exploration. For what is a body of water or expanse of space, but an invitation for exploration and contemplation to further all of humanity?
Recommended column to read next: Laws in Space