The critical nexus between Space and Sustainability

The link - or rather the nexus - between space and sustainability becomes closer every day. Space technologies, in fact, play a key role in several areas of sustainability, be it on Earth, in orbit, in the production of clean energy and in helping mankind in the path of space exploration.

On Earth there's one key point to bear in mind: space technologies - whether related to Earth Observation, Satellite Navigation or Telecommunications – are one of the greatest allies of sustainability and are essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the UN 2030 Agenda.

Just look at this stunning image of the Galapagos Islands taken by the Italian COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation radar satellites, to clearly see the potential of Earth Observation (EO) for monitoring of natural ecosystems, planning, building and maintenance of infrastructure, satellite communication potential for connecting remote communities, improving education and healthcare, as well as navigation services’ role in crisis management.

When combined, EO, navigation and satellite communications are also fundamental in the event of a natural disaster, playing a key role in the entire disaster management cycle, including prevention, preparedness, early warning, emergency response and downstream reconstruction of catastrophic events.

But there is also another aspect that we tend to forget about: spin-offs, space technologies that are used in other sectors and can have an impact on sustainability.

There's one example that applies to everyone: the Vanguard 1 satellite, launched in 1958 and the first to mount solar panels on board, a technology that was in its infancy at the time. It was due to the success of this mission that solar panels, now an emblem of clean energy, became the focus of innovation; a technology that grew up in orbit is now well established on Earth.

An overcrowded environment

Vanguard 1 is a good example when it comes to sustainability on Earth. A little less so - in fact - when it comes to sustainability in orbit.

While it proved the feasibility of solar panel technology, paving the way for clean energy, more than 60 years later, Vanguard 1 is still there and is the oldest human-built object still in orbit.

In short, a big piece of space debris.

And when we talk about debris in orbit, what comes to mind immediately is the Kessler effect, with all its potential consequences. Whether it's debris, rocket fragments or old satellites, the closest orbits to Earth need to be cleaned up first, and we need to learn how to manage them – with a real traffic management system.

The challenge is tough, but achievable. There are at least two stumbling blocks ahead of us. One involves politics, policy, and geopolitics, while the other is a matter of technology. The hurdle of technology can easily be overcome, but the other problem is more complex, and it by no means not certain that private industry will eventually find a way to get past it!

The game changer

There is one topic that I believe will be central to the future debate on space and sustainability.

Space solar power, or SSP, is the ability to generate electricity in Space and transfer it to Earth via special receivers, in the form of an electromagnetic wave. To give you an idea what this would mean, a solar-powered satellite platform placed in a GEO orbit at 36,000 km, where the sun shines 99.95 percent of the time, could provide solar power wirelessly to terrestrial markets for about twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

A potential revolution - we are talking about a real game changer - for mankind, always on the lookout for green energy with a low impact in terms of CO2 released into the atmosphere.

This is obviously still a very distant technology, where there are numerous technological unknowns, but the math is right, and it would potentially be usable both for large urban centers, which will be home to 70 percent of the world's population in 2030, and small remote communities. And not only that, because SSP could also be useful in space exploration missions, for example, to produce energy on future moon bases or, who knows, on Mars or other celestial bodies in the Solar System.

Strange (but sustainable) new worlds

There is one last aspect that I would like to address, and that is, sustainability on other celestial bodies, which encapsulates many of the aspects of sustainability on Earth, in Space and in orbit power generation that we have been talking about in recent weeks.

If we are to build a stable human presence on other celestial bodies, in fact, it must be sustainable in its entirety, from the technological, economic and environmental points of view, and above all it must have a "circular" approach as well as one capable of exploiting the use of local resources.

Whether they are reusable rockets, heat shields of probes, or landing hardware that can be used in other functions, perhaps to build shelters, our challenge today is to think about how to maximize all the materials we will take to other celestial bodies and integrate them as best we can with local resources. Only then can we make space exploration and our presence on other celestial bodies truly sustainable.

Our future outlook

The nexus between Space and Sustainability is one of the focal points of the current debate in the industry.

Just think that the 75th International Astronautical Congress ( IAC2024 ) to be held in Milan in October 2024 has chosen the motto 'Responsible Space for Sustainability' to emphasise the importance of Space as an environment that must be kept safe and open to exploration, peaceful use and international cooperation by present and future generations in the interest of the planet and all nations.

Telespazio , too, is making a commitment to sustainability, not only in the work it carries out every day in major space programmes such as Copernicus or COSMO-SkyMed, but also to foster and stimulate debate through the publication of a forthcoming book dedicated to the subject that will feature - thanks also to the contribution of the?SEE Lab?of SDA Bocconi ?- leading experts on the subject.