As the number of satellites in orbit grew, difficulties arose, faced by some satellite operators, trying to connect with colleagues in order to avoid potential conflicts. Difficulties in coordinating maneuvers between operators to reduce the risk of collision have become so severe, that the United Nations had to be involved twice already.
Last week, during the 12th annual conference on space traffic, the director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOSA) voiced the above problem. She reported, what are the last ones 14 months, her office was once asked for help by an American operator after that, as the Chinese colleague did not respond to numerous messages. In the second case, the Malaysian government contacted UNOOSA after receiving information about a close encounter between a non-maneuverable Malaysian satellite and a North Korean vehicle. As a result of operational cooperation in both cases, the disaster was avoided. The director of UNOOSA expressed her opinion, that in order to solve such problems, it is necessary to create a certain element of international coordination, which will obtain contact information for satellite owner-operators and keep it up-to-date.
At the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney last September, as American, so the Chinese satellite operators declared, that do not have contact information for the operators of many satellites, which pass through the orbits of their systems, what, in their opinion, poses a security threat in space. They assumed, that the International Telecommunication Union can play a certain role here (THAT), whose main responsibility is spectrum coordination.
Difficulties with coordinating maneuvers between operators push some experts to the same conclusion, that the final solution requires automated coordination between operators. According to the co-founder of Kayhan Space (companies, that develops automated solutions for space flight safety) humans can no longer be in the space operations cycle, especially in low Earth orbit.
Source: https://spacenews.com