Space Sustainability 101

Space sustainability is...

Ensuring that all humanity can continue to use outer space for peaceful purposes and socioeconomic benefit. This will require international cooperation, discussion, and agreements designed to ensure that outer space is safe, secure and peaceful.

Yet...

the ability to provide important benefits from outer space is now threatened. The increasing density of debris in orbit is of growing concern. Some debris comes from the pieces left behind when payloads are launched into orbit, or break up accidently. Dead satellites, spent rocket stages, and even loose bolts and wayward astronaut gloves litter the space around Earth, presenting a hazard to crews and hardware in orbit. Two of the largest contributors to orbital debris are unintentional explosions and deliberate destruction with certain types of anti-satellite weapons. Some experts predict the debris population will reach a level at which it could become self-sustaining: debris-on-debris collisions would continue to increase the amount of debris in orbit, even without new launches. This could quickly lead to a sharp decrease in the ability to sustain the benefits that space systems provide to the entire world.

Increasing crowding in key orbits also presents a chal­lenge to space operations. For example, communication satellites in geosynchronous orbit face increased crowd­ing as a result of the strong demand for satellite TV and global communications. This crowding has led to the po­tential for radio frequency interference and shrinking of the margin of error for station keeping and maneuvering operations.

Spacecraft face an espe­cially high risk in the very busy Sun-synchronous or­bits (SSO), used primarily by Earth observation satel­lites. Sun-synchronous are special orbits that make it possible for spacecraft to pass over every location on the Earth at predi­cable times and with predicable solar illumination. But because they all pass through the polar regions at very similar altitudes multiple times each day, satellites in SSO orbits experience high risk of collision, between both satellites and debris.

Secure World Foundation and its partners worldwide are dedicated to the establishment of effective and efficient systems of governance for outer space. More specifically, we have focused on mitigating the crowded conditions in Earth orbit and improving the efficiency and safety of op­erations in Earth orbit. This effort includes developing tools of governance that lead to the reduction and removal of orbital debris, promoting inter­national civil space situational awareness to improve knowledge and trans­parency, and preventing intentional destruction of spacecraft by anti-sat­ellite (ASAT) weapons that is harmful to the space environment.