Space Sustainability I: Preserve the Space Environment to Achieve SDGs
The space environment is undergoing rapid changes with the emergence of new commercial capabilities. These include increased satellite activity and novel space capabilities such as satellite constellations, autonomous spacecraft, and commercial space destinations.
These activities have led to a proliferation of space debris and to a space traffic increase raising prospects of orbital congestion and negative impacts on the quality of the dark sky. The rising spacecraft production and orbital launches are also raising the environmental footprint of the sector.
No doubt space is critical to support the attainment of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, those activities might lead to a paradoxical situation whereby the use of space to support SDGs may become unsustainable from the perspective of both the Earth and space environment. This situation can be described by some as the ‘space sustainability paradox’ (Ross & Vasili, 2024).
Science perspectives are fundamental to understand these issues and technically inform policy makers to foster the adoption of sustainable practices through technology and policy development, and increase our efforts to share and receive information with the rest of the global society as a whole, to nurture the benefits for all humankind.