Space debris activities in Europe

Space debris activities within Europe are mainly performed by ESA, and by the national space agencies ASI (Italy), BSNC (UK), CNES (France), and DLR (Germany), with the support of European industry, research institutes, and academia. Since the year 1999 such activities were coordinated between these entities by a Space Debris Working Group, within a European Network of Centres (currently transiting to a Network of Competences). The scope of debris activities covers research in the areas of ground-based and in-situ measurements, the development of debris and meteoroid environment models based on such measurement data, the assessment of debris related risks on orbit and due to re-entry, the development of effective shielding technologies, the improvement of techniques for hyper-velocity impact tests and hydro-code computer simulations, the analysis of the long-term effectiveness of different debris mitigation measures, the implementation of such measures in launcher and satellite design and operation, and the concerted efforts towards harmonized international agreements on space debris mitigation. The European partners ESA, ASI, BNSC, CNES, and DLR support the development of international guidelines at the UNCOPUOS Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee (STSC), and within the ISO Orbital Debris Coordination Working Group (TC20/SC14). These standardization efforts are supported by national and ESA-internal debris mitigation rules, and by the combined technical expertise provided by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC), with ESA, ASI, BNSC, CNES and DLR as members.