B. On-Orbit Services Space Debris Mitigation

In recent years, the amount of space debris (orbital debris; hereinafter “debris”) and the number of spacecraft in orbit have risen rapidly. As a result, “Space Traffic Management” is now widely recognized worldwide as essential to ensuring the safety of space operations and the sustainable development of space activities.
Working with domestic and international stakeholders, JAXA is advancing the research and development needed to accurately understand and manage the space environment and to lay the foundation for effective countermeasures and the establishment of international rules.
Protecting the space environment and maintaining international competitiveness as a leader in environmental technologies requires reliable data and evaluation results that can serve as persuasive evidence in international rule-making. JAXA aims to contribute to preserving the space environment through research on three fronts: observation and measurement technologies, both ground-based and on-orbit, for monitoring the orbital environment; modeling and analysis techniques to assess risks to spacecraft and the effectiveness of mitigation measures; and the development of efficient protection and mitigation technologies.

Significance of the Research

Spacecraft and debris travel at extremely high velocities of several kilometers per second. Even millimeter-sized debris can damage a spacecraft on impact, and collisions between large objects can generate vast quantities of new debris. On-orbit servicing technologies are being developed to remove large debris from congested orbits, objects that can become sources of large amounts of small debris. However, there is no effective method for removing micro-debris in bulk.
Accurately understanding and managing the current orbital environment is therefore essential to keep hazardous debris from rising to levels that would make space activities unsafe and unsustainable. Space activities have recently expanded beyond Earth orbit to lunar and Martian orbits, and international discussions on rule-making have grown increasingly active.
Many aspects of the micro-debris environment remain unclear, including its current state, generation mechanisms, future evolution, and attitude motion, and the environment changes constantly through launches and fragmentation events such as explosions. Timely situational awareness and active participation in international discussions based on the latest knowledge are therefore crucial.