ROOM
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Space Security
The near-Earth orbital domain is severely
polluted with debris. We are quickly running
out of electromagnetic spectrum, which is a
finite and limited resource that we must learn to
manage better in the face of tremendous pressure
to allocate existing space spectrum to new,
commercial terrestrial uses.
Orbital crowding, space debris and the resulting
need for space traffic management, are quickly
becoming major priorities - but who will develop
the technologies and who will manage (and pay
for) these resources?
The proposal to launch a number of new low
Earth orbit constellations with hundreds and even
thousands of satellites each makes addressing
the orbital debris issue even more urgent. Will we
pollute space as we have done with Earth?
International policy and regulatory issues,
complicated by dual use, national security and
disruptive commercial developments, must
find new outlets for constructive and practical
decision-making and conflict resolution.
The landmark space treaties of 50 years ago are
now relics of a past world. How can we not only
update them to meet the needs of today but also
create the international policy framework for a
tomorrow we can only dimly see?
Existing space legal structures, including
liability, must be reconsidered to catch up with
the quickly evolving reality. Innovative new
commercial entrants, funded by venture capital
and armed with disruptive technologies and
perspectives, along with many traditionally non
spacefaring nations, are now competing for
increasingly limited orbital slots, spectrum, and
their own place in space.
Satellites, invisibly embedded in many aspects
of our modern lives, are our servants in space.
This will only increase in the future and so we
must find a path forward into a very different
world, a path that will allow us to continue to
grow and manage our use of near Earth space.
We need new ideas, new technologies, new
markets, new legal and policy structures, and new
ways of cooperating.
The future will be exciting if we can make a
success of managing these vital issues. Failure is
not an option. It is up to every one of us to create
our future in space. Let’s get to work and solve
these urgent space policy and regulatory issues.
About the author
Dr Scott Madry is the Executive Director of the Global Space Institute,
research associate professor of archaeology at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, and is the President of Informatics
International, Inc.
become a vital utility for our interconnected,
digital world. Starting with the US GPS system
in the late 1970s, we also now have positioning
and timing satellite systems operated by Russia,
China, India, and Europe.
These constellations of 20-30 satellites in
a medium orbit of ~20,000 km (and some in
GEO), constantly broadcast a stream of signals
that allow us to accurately locate ourselves,
navigate around our planet, and know our time
to a fraction of a second. Satellite navigation
systems have quickly become a vital aspect of
our interconnected digital world, and represent
a hidden component of many of our daily life
activities, including timing for our power grids,
the Internet and vehicle navigation, just to name
a few.
We are now moving into a far more integrated
satellite applications future, where telecoms,
remote sensing and navigation are being
integrated with Geographic Information Systems
(GIS), and are available on smart phones and apps
for new uses like Location Based Services, crowd
sourcing and big data analytics. The internet of
things is quickly becoming the internet of places
as well.
New, innovative, and disruptive technologies
such as cubesats, satellite constellations, and
rapid advances in computing and networking
are altering the space domain and putting
tremendous pressure on the existing order.
There are many very difficult issues facing the
satellite applications community. These are related
to complex and difficult issues of spectrum needs,
orbital crowding, space traffic management,
liability and orbital debris.
European Galileo
satellites in low Earth
orbit.
International
policy and
regulatory
issues must
find new
outlets for
constructive
and practical
decision-
making
and conflict
resolution
