Active Debris Removal technologies are inherently dual-use. Discuss the strategic and legal challenges, and suggest safeguards.

Active Debris Removal (ADR) means approaching objects already in orbit and capturing them. It underpins India's "debris-free space by 2030" vision, showcased by Cosmoserve Space's Mission EMBRACE, which tested soft robotic capture petals [1]. The robotics that remove junk or service satellites [1] could also grab a rival's spacecraft. This makes ADR a latent co-orbital counter-space tool.

Strategic challenges

• Unclear intent: a cleaner and an anti-satellite craft look the same in orbit. This invites suspicion and a quiet arms race.
• Risk from mishaps: a failed capture can break an object into many pieces. One Chinese CZ-6A rocket-stage break-up alone added about 650 catalogued objects in 2024 [3].
• Unequal tracking capability: only states with space situational awareness, such as India's IS4OM [3], can check what an ADR craft is doing.
• Credibility: India wants sovereign capabilities while keeping its partnerships [1]. Secretive missions would weaken its "Vishwa bandhu Bharat" image.

Legal challenges

• Ownership and consent: under the UN space treaties, the launching state keeps jurisdiction over its objects, even debris. Removing a foreign object therefore needs that state's consent.
• No domestic law: the Space Activities Bill was promised in 2018 [4] but stayed at pre-legislative consultation. Yet India has to meet its treaty liability by licensing private activity [5].
• Liability gap: the draft third-party liability framework proposed insurance for launch operators [6]. It does not clearly cover capture operations carried out weeks after launch.
• Soft law only: DFSM is a stated intent, not a mandate [2]. The COPUOS's 21 guidelines on the long-term sustainability of space activities (2019) are voluntary [7].

Safeguards

• Legislation: pass a space law that licenses ADR and servicing, with explicit consent rules.
• Insurance: extend liability cover to rendezvous and capture missions.
• Transparency: announce each mission and its target at COPUOS in advance, as a confidence-building measure.
• Own debris first: 41 pieces of India's 2001 PSLV-C3 break-up were still in orbit at the end of 2024 [3]. IS4OM can rank such targets by collision risk.
• Global norms: press for binding rules on close approaches to other objects in orbit.

ADR's dual-use nature calls for governance, not abandonment. India can combine DFSM's mitigation-first approach [2] with legislation, insurance and transparency. That would make its capture robots trusted cleaners, keeping orbit a peaceful global commons as the Outer Space Treaty intends.