In the last two weeks there has been quite a stir around a piece of a Chinese rocket that fell uncontrollably to Earth, and that could have hit a multitude of areas, including Madrid , although it eventually fell into the ocean near the Maldives . In May 2020 there was a similar case also of a Chinese rocket, which finally landed on the west coast of Africa. But what can happen if one falls in your house?
Space debris is an increasingly serious problem, as there are an estimated 128 million pieces floating at thousands of km / h, the impact of which is worse than that of a bullet and which can generate a terrible domino effect in space. Of pieces between 1 and 10 cm there are 900,000 , and of more than 10 cm there are 34,000 . The problem is that a piece, no matter how small, can destroy a ship.
There are laws that protect against impacts against the Earth
Most people always ask the same question about space debris: if it could be prevented, what would have happened if it caused damage, or how it will affect the deployment of new spacecraft. Currently, there is a map that allows us to know all the remains that orbit the Earth, but that is only done with the largest ones.
Interestingly, if there are impacts on a satellite, the law does not protect anyone. If it falls on Earth, the situation changes. If a rocket from another country falls on your house, there is a Convention and a UN Treaty of 1967 and 1972 that protect you, where the State responsible for the rocket will have to compensate the affected; even if the fault lies with a private company in that country. Of course, your country will have to make the corresponding diplomatic claim to the country of origin of the piece.
Something like this happened in Canada in 1978 , when the Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 fell in Canada, causing the scattering of the radioactive material that its reactor contained to function. The cleanup cost C $ 14 million, but eventually the Soviet Union paid C $ 3 million in the deal.
But there are no repercussions in space
This is the only time the 1967 Convention of Guilt has been used for space debris related to the impact of something from one country on another. In 1979, a US space station called SkyLab fell and split into several parts, one falling into an uninhabited area of western Australia. The country jokingly claimed 400 Australian dollars from NASA for littering, which was ignored by the country, but was paid for in 2009 by a radio host.
In space, however, if a piece of space debris contacts a satellite of yours and breaks it, nothing can be done to fix it, since there is no globally coordinated system of these types of elements, so it would be very difficult to identify the owner of the piece in question.
Therefore, you cannot change what has already been done, and what you have to do is put solutions so that these problems do not occur in the future. For example, it is important that laws are passed for legal consequences for leaving garbage in space, since collecting it is very expensive and difficult. Starlink is being very careful doing it, where in addition SpaceX already has almost half the satellites in space, and they are thrown against the surface to disintegrate.