Defense ministry to create space debris monitoring unit

January 4, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Defense Ministry is set to create a special unit at the Air Self-Defense Force in fiscal 2022 to constantly monitoring space debris and prevent collisions with artificial satellites.

The ministry is currently working to build a new system to monitor the situation in space around the clock, aiming to start operations in fiscal 2023.

Space debris is made up mostly of fragments of satellites and rockets.

The number of pieces of space debris has been increasing since a China missile test to destroy one of its satellites in 2007 and a collision between U.S. and Russian satellites in 2009.

There are some 20,000 pieces of space debris that are 10 centimeters or larger in diameter, according to a Japanese government source.

With space debris moving at speeds of 7 kilometers per second, a ministry official says "a 10-centimeter piece of space debris could cause catastrophic damage."

The monitoring system is composed of information-gathering radar and a computer program for information analysis.

The radar to be installed at a Maritime SDF facility in Sanyo-Onoda in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, is expected to collect information about areas near satellites.

The data will be sent to the ASDF's Fuchu Air Base in a western Tokyo suburb for analysis by the envisaged monitoring unit.

If the unit concludes that debris will approach to a satellite, it will ask the company operating it to adjust the orbit.

Around fiscal 2011, the ministry started sending its officials and SDF members to a US air base in Colorado to take a course on space.

Members of the new unit will be sent to the base to learn about space.

The ministry currently operates the Kirameki 2 X-band communications satellite for the SDF. It plans have two more similar satellites by fiscal 2022.

A debris-monitoring system is indispensable for stable satellite operations, sources familiar with the situation said. strong>Jiji Press