Space sustainability
[12] To further mitigation, international and transdisciplinary consortia have stepped forward to analyze existing operations, develop standards, and incentivize future procedures to prioritize a sustainable approach.
[14] A shift towards sustainable interactions with the space environment is growing in urgency due to the implications of climate change and increasing risk to spacecraft as time presses on.
In the discussions between countries on long-term sustainability, technical improvements are given more importance than introducing and applying new legal regimes.
[18] Large-sized debris has no official classification, but typically refers to entire spacecraft, such as an out of use satellite or launch vehicle.
[18] Space weather poses a risk to satellite health, consequently, resulting in greater amounts of orbital debris.
Within the coming decade, companies like SpaceX are predicted to launch an additional fifteen thousand satellites into LEO and GEO orbits.
[21] Considering space sustainability in regard to atmospheric impact of re-entry is by 2022 just developing[23] and has been identified in 2024 as suffering from "atmosphere-blindness", causing global environmental injustice.
[24] This is identified as a result of the current end-of life spacecraft management, which favors the station keeping practice of controlled re-entry.
The development of space sustainability has not given sufficient political attention, although some warnings and discussions have made this abundantly clear.
Current space sustainability efforts rely heavily on the precedent set by regulatory agreements and conventions of the twentieth century.
[27] Efforts to combat these concerns began in 1956 with the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOUS).
[26] Principles of Article IX provided the basis for the Committee of Space Research (COSPAR) Planetary Protection Policy guidelines, which are generally well-regarded among scientific experts.
[31] COSPAR believes that the prevention of such contamination is in the best interest of humanity as it may impede scientific progress, exploration, and the mission of a search for life.
[18] Many delegates at the COPUOS meeting expressed their reasons for doing so, arguing that space debris management is closely linked to technology and funding.
While scientists may not have the means to make and enforce global laws themselves, the study concluded in 2022 that it needs "new policies, rules and regulations at national and international level".
[41][42] Sustainability mitigation efforts include but are not limited to design specifications, policy change, removal of space debris, and restoration of orbiting semi-functional technologies.
Due to the increased awareness of high-velocity collisions and orbital debris in the previous decades, missions have adapted design specifications to account for these risks.
[18] Mitigation also includes reducing the possibility for post-mission breakups due to stored energy and/or operations phases, as well as addressing procedure for end of mission disposal for spacecraft.
[14] The four leading organizations are the European Space Agency, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, and BryceTech with the goal to define the technical and programmatic aspects of the SSR.
[43] The SSR represents an innovative approach to combating orbital debris through incentivizing the industry to prioritize sustainable and responsible operations.
[14] This response entails the consideration of potential harm to the space environment and other spacecraft, all while maintaining mission objectives and high-quality service.
[43] The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is one the tools geared towards solving the challenges presented when tracking orbiting satellites and debris.
[18] The SSA continuously tracks objects using ground-based radar and optical stations so the orbital paths of debris can be predicted and operations avoid collisions.
[18] Moreover, a low compliance rate of approximately thirty percent of the 103 spacecraft that reached end of life between 1997 and 2003 were disposed of in a graveyard orbit.
[18] Most famous removal concepts are based on directed energy, momentum exchange or electrodynamics, aerodynamic drag augmentation, solar sails, auxiliary propulsion units, retarding surfaces and on-orbit capture.
[15] Since large-sized debris objects in orbit provide a potential source for tens of thousands of fragments in the future, ADR efforts focus on objects with high mass and large cross-sectional areas, in densely populated regions, and at high altitudes; in this instance, retired satellites and rocket bodies are a priority.
[18] The previous reduced state of regulation and mitigation on space debris[13] and rocket fuel emissions[44] is aggravating the Earth's stratosphere through collisions and ozone depletion, increasing the risk for spacecraft health through its lifetime.
Rocket fuel emissions are made up of carbon dioxide, water, hydrochloric acid, alumina and soot particles.
[44] The nature of geoengineering has been disputed as a form of mitigating global warming and has the possibility of being banned and holding rockets accountable for the soot particles they distribute to the stratosphere.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX at the International Astronautical Congress in 2016, explained the ambitious goal of exploring Mars in the 22nd century.
