Salvage rights

[Rhyshaelkan]

Could anyone point me towards current salvage rights used in space?

In addition to my "trash day" thread. Are there any current laws regarding legal issues an private organization would face if they started claiming defunct satellites, nuts and bolts, lost gloves, tool boxes. All of which that have been lost or abandoned in space.

http://www.spacefuture.com/habitat/law.shtml
"Another interesting idea is the proposal to introduce a law of "Space Salvage". At sea the long-standing law of salvage allows the person who takes control of an abandoned vessel to claim ownership. One of the growing problems in Earth orbit is the amount of "space debris" - abandoned satellites, rocket stages and other pieces abandoned by the governments which launched them. By introducing a law of salvage there would be a strong incentive for businesses to collect together useful objects. Because of the high cost of launch, any mass in orbit is valuable. Even at a launch cost as low as $100/kg, scrap metal would be worth at least $100,000/ton in low orbit! And so we can foresee that recycling is sure to become a major orbital business. "

[Phenix]

Could anyone point me towards current salvage rights used in space?

In addition to my "trash day" thread. Are there any current laws regarding legal issues an private organization would face if they started claiming defunct satellites, nuts and bolts, lost gloves, tool boxes. All of which that have been lost or abandoned in space.

http://www.spacefuture.com/habitat/law.shtml
"Another interesting idea is the proposal to introduce a law of "Space Salvage". At sea the long-standing law of salvage allows the person who takes control of an abandoned vessel to claim ownership. One of the growing problems in Earth orbit is the amount of "space debris" - abandoned satellites, rocket stages and other pieces abandoned by the governments which launched them. By introducing a law of salvage there would be a strong incentive for businesses to collect together useful objects. Because of the high cost of launch, any mass in orbit is valuable. Even at a launch cost as low as $100/kg, scrap metal would be worth at least $100,000/ton in low orbit! And so we can foresee that recycling is sure to become a major orbital business. "

I totally agree with you. Salvaging the space orbit trash will helpfully clean up the path for a Space development. You've go the right point

[Boxy]

There's liable to be a firestorm if people accidentally "salvage" operating satellites. I mean, the only way to determine whether they're operational is to contact it, and if they're on private channels that might be difficult to do.

[Phenix]

I agree that salvaging legitimate functional device can be an issue. However we cannot allow any future ground launching to endanger human life. Safety is a priority. Please, keep Space clean.

[Boxy]

Any effort of this scale would have to be an international venture, with the actual authority to back up its decisions. To further illustrate the point, imagine if the EPA were run by the UN. We'd still be dickering about whether Silent Spring and Love Canal should be cleaned up.

Do you foresee any NGO's being successful at cleaning up space?

[Rhyshaelkan]

Well you just never know. When PERMANENT gets off the ground(literally), one mission could be to recover defunct satellites and move them to a facility at LEO or EML1(earth-moon liberation point 1) to be recycled. Same could be done for near anything still in orbit which no one claims.

Similar to my "trash day" thread. Once Orbit Transfer Vehicles are constructed and fueled in space, out of Lunar or asteroid materials, the delta-V to recover objects in LEO and recycle them could show considerable savings in resources.

Things that cannot be recycled or used could be pushed into a decaying orbit around Terra or even Sol, if the object is too large to safely burn up in Terra's atmosphere.

PERMANENT could someday fund it's own NGO for such an ongoing operation.

[Boxy]

About things that cannot be recycled: instead of launching it into the sun, why not take Prado's idea about "sandbagging" it and using it as radiation shielding? We need bulk shielding anyway, and "recycling" it in this way would prove useful.