The first space debris monitoring center in China -- CAS Space Object and Debris Monitoring and Research Center has been founded in early March at the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. It will build a security warning system in China's spaceflight field.

    Space debris, commonly referred to as "space trash", are castoffs resulting from human space activities. They can be as large as discarded satellites and metal parts of spacecrafts or as small as residues and dust left over by solid engines during ignition. It is estimated that space debris which are larger than 1 centimeter in diameter and cannot be observed in space have exceeded 110,000. Those larger than one millimeter have exceeded 40 million. Total weight of these debris is about 3,000 tons and its quantity is increasing by 2-5 percent each year. Xia Yi, a research fellow at the PMO said: "judging by the growth speed of space debris nothing can enter the space orbits by the year 2300. The objective of the research is to protect the manned spaceships and precious large satellites."

    As learned the Space Object and Debris Monitoring and Research Center concentrates more than 10 senior experts in China's space debris research area. The research scope covers the building of small space debris database, real time tracking and monitoring of discovered space debris, searching for undiscovered space debris, conducting warning technology research for possible collisions with debris during spaceship launching and orbiting, and establishing risk assessment system.

    For the human spaceflight and aviation undertaking the research on space debris ought to be for the public welfare. However, as the space technologies, particularly the military research, develop in various countries major countries in the west have begun to block research data. (People's daily).