UK hosts fourth Summit for “Space Sustainability”

Context

Recently, the U.K. hosted the fourth summit for Space Sustainability in London in collaboration with the Secure World Foundation. 

What is Space Sustainability?

• Space sustainability refers to the ability of all humanity to continue to use outer space for peaceful purposes and socioeconomic benefit over the long term.
  
  

The need

• Orbital crowding: The earth’s orbital environment has more than tripled in the past decade. One of the hot issues when it comes to space sustainability is orbital crowding.
• Increasing players: As the cost of missions reduces and the number of players increases, the complexity of missions and slot allotment issues also increase. 
• Threat to on-going operations: It poses a direct threat to the operations and safety of a mission and is likely to cause legal and insurance-related conflicts. 
  
  
• Risk of collisions and interference: With the emergence of large constellations and complex satellites, there is a risk of collisions and interference with radio frequencies. 
• Increasing space debris: Space debris is another prominent issue.
• Space weather threats: Other causes of concern are solar and magnetic storms which potentially damage communication systems.
• Threats: Unsustainable use of space can threaten the:

• • National and international security
  • Earth observation
  • Telecommunications
  • Satellite navigation
  • Scientific exploration
  • Economic development

U.K. plan for space sustainability entail

• The U.K. calls for an “Astro Carta” for space sustainability, based on the Artemis Accords model for sustainable space exploration.
• The U.K. Space Sustainability plan mentions four primary elements:
• to review the regulatory framework of the U.K.’s orbital activity
• to work with organisations such as the G-7 and the UN to emphasise international engagement on space sustainability
• to try and develop safety and quality-related metrics that quantify the sustainability of activities
• to induce additional funding of $6.1 million on active debris removal

India stands on space sustainability

• India is well on its way to create a subsystem that addresses global sustainability questions.
• The headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (In-SPACe) was formally inaugurated last month.
• One can expect an increased role of the private sector in India’s space activities.
• The ISRO has initiated ‘Project NETRA’ to monitor space debris.
• To provide in-orbit servicing, ISRO is developing a docking experiment called ‘SPADEX’.
• It looks at docking a satellite on an existing satellite, offering support in re-fuelling and other in-orbit services while enhancing the capability of a satellite.