If you’ve got ninety-nine problems, but Space isn’t one, think again!

If you’ve got ninety-nine problems, but Space isn’t one, think again!

When we think of sustainability, we think of how our individual and collective behaviours and actions may impact the world we live in. Sustainability is striving to achieve our aims, without leaving the world worse off for future generations, and in hope of leaving it more resilient for the longer term.

We tend to associate sustainability with the protection of our environment (and rightly so), whether that’s to do with our lands, our oceans, or our climate. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals help to focus our efforts on some of the most critical challenges we face as a global society.

Whilst efforts to such causes must not wane, we must also not forget a lesser publicised environment when it comes to sustainability: Space. Space… really? What do you mean by Space? Why should we think about Space when we have a million and one issues on Earth that needs solving first? Well, because Space impacts us so much more than rocket launches and missions to the Moon and Mars; we rely on data from our satellites to function as a society, from navigation (where would we be without Google Maps?), to protecting our agriculture and biodiversity, to supporting disaster and emergency relief efforts, to monitoring changes and impacts to our climate. Space is critical infrastructure.

But like the Earth’s environment, the Space environment is in danger. It’s in danger of being left too congested, unprotected, and therefore, unsustainable. Since the first satellite launch, Sputnik 1, in 1957, we’ve seen over 10,000 artificial satellites launched into orbit. Granted, a lot of these have since de-orbited and re-entered our atmosphere, but there are still many defunct satellites, launch vehicle remnants, and other fragmentation debris, collectively known as space debris, up there. NASA estimates that there are over 100 million pieces of debris larger than 1 millimetre orbiting the Earth, of which a mere 27,000 (typically larger than 10 centimetres) are tracked, some of which by our very own team at RAF Fylingdales. This is compounded by the fact that if all plans were to be believed, we may see an additional several tens of thousands of satellites launched in the next decade.

Illustration of the Debris Cloud Orbiting the Earth. Image Credit: European Space Agency.

And therein lies several problems. We have the collective responsibility to ensure space remains safe and sustainable. But how can we continue to maintain a safe environment when we can’t really characterise the risk effectively? For those that have seen the film Gravity, you would have seen the effects of the Kessler Syndrome – the cascading effect of in-orbit collisions caused by a high density of satellites and other space debris. Yes, the short-term effect is exaggerated and highly dramatized in the film, but the narrative is still relevant. Millions of uncontrolled and untracked objects in Earth orbit travelling at speeds of up to 17,500 mph can have disastrous effects to the very critical satellites I spoke of earlier, and to any crewed missions. Whilst the social and environmental consequences of losing said satellites are vast, the economic impacts should also not be underestimated; studies have shown that widespread outage of GPS would cost the US economy over $1 billion every day!

Secondly, with an environment so congested, how do we manage space traffic effectively? Akin to the aviation sector, do we need some form of space traffic management? This is, however, easier said than done, as the sector lacks a central international body taking overall responsibility of regulation, but we need to start somewhere.

As described by BBC Click’s video on space debris, there is no single answer to tackle the challenges we face in making space sustainable. With several stakeholders across civil, defence, commercial, and academia, a collective and collaborative effort is needed.

• We need a better regulatory environment starting at national level in the short term, scaling to international in the long term, that enforce sustainable practices from cradle to grave, penalising those that don’t comply, or rewarding those that do. A rules-based system should be established to hold those responsible accountable.
• We need sustainable design philosophies employed by satellite manufacturers and operators with effective end-of-life strategies, both when the satellite is in a cooperative or uncooperative state.
• We need better international collaboration and open data sharing mandates across all stakeholders – civil, defence, and commercial – with more accessible working environments, clearer interoperable interfaces, and better availability of assured and complete datasets.
• We need to continue the advancement of technology to help us better track and characterise the space environment and its associated threats, and (active debris removal) solutions that help clean up the mess we’ve started to make.

Whilst these are just a few examples in a long list of areas we need to work on, there have been several advancements this year on a political level. I was pleased to see the UK Government, through the UK Space Agency, taking leadership and action at the 4th Summit for Space Sustainability (which Serco also proudly sponsored) earlier this year, outlining several new space sustainability measures and additional funding. The US, through the FCC, shortening the 25-year de-orbit rule at end-of-life to 5 years was a long time coming; I hope the UK follows suit. More recently, the UK joined 6 other nations in a pledge to not conduct direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests, an irresponsible practice that I hope many others will also make a commitment against. All of this is in addition to the significant progress both industry and academia have made on developing associated technology.

We’re only at the brink of uncovering the problem and taking action. Space sustainability cannot be seen as the ‘flavour of the month’, it should be ingrained as common practice. Across the Space industry, we need to work collectively towards a common goal, seeking guidance and support from those outside who can share relevant experience to learn from. Now is not the time to lose momentum. Quite simply put, by not investing in Space sustainability, we also fail to support Earth’s sustainability. We must protect Space for generations to come.

Amar Vora is Space Technical Solutions Lead for Serco Space & Security in the UK. Find out more about Amar's "journey into space": Meet Our Team in Defence (serco.com)