Technology advancement and curiosity have the capacity to explore and
survive which is one of the advantage mirrors for a species to survive as what
it is gifted to human beings.
Connection, communication in the age of digitalization is one of the breaking
points to sustain and upgrade state economy, welfare, and governance.
After the launch of the first satellite in space or we can say in the
terminology of geography as geo orbital station, there are plenty of advantages
of this satellite that we all know as globally every state is on the marathon to
raise their flag in outer space. geo orbits to gain their hegemony as well as
economic strength, there is an issue regarding law which is addressed unipolar
due to lack of diplomatic talks, sharing of technology, and filing patents and
the issue is there is no specific law in India that address space debris culture
and if it has been framed then its liability may be considered as an act of god,
or solar magnetic radiation due to which it dilutes the contract agreement and
beneficiary institutes like
ISRO, NASA, European Union or any private large tech
bless themselves to run away from any kind of liability that has to be paid to
citizens for their personal or private loss.
Before going ahead it is to be mentioned that space debris means that every
satellite had its life span orbiting the earth and if they for any reason fails
to respond due to magnetic radiation or human error it floats like a vacuum and
has the ability to crash with another satellite which breaks into millions of
pieces and continue to float in outer space. Their chances to hit earth's
plateau is possible but they mainly burn into ashes due to atmospheric layers
resistance. but the issue is if they are collected at a huge amount it wouldn't
be burnt altogether and have the ability to dismantle property and personal
life.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which keeps a record of
the operational satellites, there are 6,542 satellites, out of which 3,372
satellites are active and 3,170 satellites are inactive, as recorded by 1st
January 2021.
There are some international laws that has been framed by observing this issue
and also known as Magna carta of space laws, the outer space treaty was signed
in the fall of 1967 and gave away for international consensus stipulating that
the outer celestial bodies would be only used for peaceful purpose and prevents
any kind of military objective. One of the most interesting fact is it is signed
by 105 countries and is also dubbed as the constitution of space.
- The aim and
objective is quite utopic in nature as like the exploration and use of outer
space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries
and shall be the province of all mankind;
- outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all States;
- outer space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by
means of use or occupation, or by any other means;
- States shall not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in
orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner;
- the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful
purposes;
- astronauts shall be regarded as the envoys of mankind;
- States shall be responsible for national space activities whether carried out by
governmental or non-governmental entities;
- States shall be liable for damage caused by their space objects; and
- States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies
As INDIA is a member of this treaty so it is shall be the responsibility of the
governing institution to frame laws, flatter amendments, and take this talk and
rules for outgoing international events.
As per article 2 of this treaty outer space is not subject to national
appropriation by claim of sovereignty, and this is what I find the loopholes
that can be used by international, regional bodies to run away from liability as
it contradicts from prevention of liability act like if an accident happened and
for an example its hits northern parts of the INDIA and for example, there is a
loss of personal liberty, life property, etc then compensation may be provided
by the public sector and I am again using the word
may and it doesn't make
negative or aggregate absolute liability then that specific institution can run
away from paying the liability by saying that we doesn't have any sovereign
liability in the outer space so on which grounds may the state is demanding for
grants until and unless it shall be presumed as Bhopal gas tragedy or an air
crash where territory and laws are well framed to haunt the firms.it is other
specific perfidious nature of diplomats, lawyers, and scholars to help them out
for paying liabilities and it may be justified somewhere isn't it?
So, in that case, the case would be transferred to international treaty
legislation tribunals and inquiry would be conducted another issue is
territorial jurisdiction coverage which is quite narrower globally. this would
all lead to the violation of Articles 14,19,21 and 32 of the Indian constitution
which is the basic structure of the nation itself.
The second issue is about a law that is needed to be framed regionally, but it
had already been framed on international grounds but the perspective is "if we
want to fight we will fight no matter if god comes in the form of peaceful
treaty or foolish diplomats" actually this quote is framed by myself only so
nothing to feel anxious. So let's back to the issue and that is
BOGOTO
Declaration.
Actually when a satellite is deployed on geosynchronous orbit then
no member state as per the outer space treaty is allowed to claim aggregate
sovereignty and jurisdiction but, when due to technology like using thrusters
and vacuum a satellite can be stationed on a specific latitude and longitude so
they are stationed and this is a loophole that if they go through this technique
so they can target any specific state in case of personal loss or property and
can run away from liabilities so to handle this
Bogota declaration was framed
but the point is this declaration can be assumed as a happiness card like okay
for a moment my satellite cannot be stationed at a specific latitude and on the
other it cannot have any territorial claim so if an accident happens due to
debris then who will the firm pay???? And the answer is hmm let you think about
the same.
Let's give you some facts that how many of the satellite is active as of the
year 2022
- Total number of operating satellites: 4,852
- United States: 2,944 Russia: 16 9China: 499 Other: 1,240
So it's the united states that have wider and on the other hand, it is one of
the flexible and mendacious states that frame the majority of the treaties and
international agreements so it may happen that a cow owner wouldn't feed
nutrition that may be harmful to its interest.
Let's come to INDIA we have the Indian contract act,1872 and there are various
principles that infuse a contract to be null, void unlawful, and illogical but
it doesn't apply to the international agreement and it is reasonable but we can
frame the laws similar to counter any loopholes so in future we only don't pay
for the loss overall.
There are more than 3,000 dead satellites and rocket stages currently floating
in space, and up to 900,000 pieces of space junk ranging from 1 to 10
centimeters in size - all large enough to be a collision hazard and a potential
cause for disruption to live missions. According to the United Nations Office
for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), with space traffic increasing, the number of
in-space collisions is
expected to rise.
The second case is In 2009, two satellites - one Russian, one American -
collided over Siberia, breaking into hundreds of pieces of debris. That followed
an incident in 2007 in which China destroyed one of its older weather satellites
as part of an anti-satellite test, leaving around 2,500 pieces of debris in the
Earth's orbit.
Presently India didn't violate any law regarding the same but
judicial activism, researchers, diplomats, elites, law scholars and a committee
shall be framed in the future or whenever needed to frame a regional resistance
policy while taking the Indian institute of technology in a wider perspective.
According to ISRO India has launched almost 343 satellites and just think about
the liability and curiosity of finding loopholes similar to me and
interpretation is done on wider platforms.
That's the end of this article and also confined space a vacuum blind justice
because justice is blind and we have the potential to bring pieces of evidence
that it's all yours, not mine.
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