Sustainability Topics Take Center Stage at This Year's Show

If you ask a dozen satellite industry veterans about the biggest development in space sustainability, chances are they’ll say “awareness.”

Across the industry, we’re seeing deeper commitments to sustainability in multiple ways — from investing in space debris removal to installing new technology to enable cleaner missions. For example, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently sought industry comments for a research and development plan for orbital debris. Perhaps in one of the most telling signs of all, SATELLITE 2022 will feature more panel sessions on sustainability topics than ever before.

“There’s a growing recognition that there’s a looming crisis, and we need to act now, and we need to act at the national level,” says John Janka, Viasat’s chief officer of Global Government Affairs & Regulatory, who will be speaking on a panel titled “Space Sustainability — Global Challenges.” “That recognition exists with a large number of satellite operators.”

Yet while awareness is high, deeper concerns are also surfacing: For example, given some of the industry changes in recent months, what milestones are ahead for 2022 and beyond? How will this area develop moving forward? What challenges and uncertainties will the satellite industry and its partners have to navigate?

Sustainability is a Key Selling Point

Throughout 2021, investments in startups focused on sustainability grew exponentially, especially in the area of debris management.

“Technology is really snowballing,” says Ruth Pritchard-Kelly, senior advisor for Regulatory and Space Policy for OneWeb, who will be speaking on the panel “Space Sustainability - Global Challenges.” “Today ClearSpace, Astroscale, LeoLabs, and others expect to make money out of deorbiting. This is going to be their business. And that is exciting.”

OneWeb amplified its commitment to sustainability, for example, by adding grappling fixtures to its satellites, and partnering with ESA and Astroscale, a developer of technology for debris mitigation and sustainability. This, and other developments such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) space sustainability rating system, reflect a deeper concern internationally for cleaner missions whereupon spacecraft can move to avoid collision and deorbit as necessary.

“Every one of OneWeb’s satellites is equipped with some sort of grappling fixture, so should the need arise for deorbiting we can do it,” says Pritchard-Kelly.

Chad Anderson, managing partner for Space Capital, a seed stage venture capital firm with $100 million under management, says that some of the more important areas of satellite investment are in sustainability and climate monitoring. Space Capital and Silicon Valley Bank recently released a new report, “The Great Climate Opportunity,” about how investment in satellite technology can impact climate change. That report will be the subject of Monday's luncheon keynote.

“I think about sustainability holistically — you need the climate piece, with organizations helping with monitoring and focused on offsetting carbon and climate change, and you also need safe and operational orbits,” says Anderson. “A third area of interest that’s seeing huge developments is rockets and rocket manufacturing. Moving forward, reusability is key. Reusable vehicles like Starship are the holy grail, not just in terms of environmental concerns, but in terms of sustainability.”

But private investment alone won’t be enough to deal with existing debris. “Governments will have to put out funding to create some other industry to clean up debris,” says Pritchard-Kelly. “Who’s going to clean up what’s left in space if not us?”

Self-Servicing Satellites Aren’t a Silver Bullet

However, investment in more robust technologies such as self-servicing satellites won’t ensure the safety of operating in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), amid launch of large-scale constellations. Given the proliferation of lethal non-trackable debris and ongoing unpredictability such as Russia’s recent anti-satellite (ASAT) test, the satellite industry will need more robust solutions to avoid catastrophe.

Viasat’s December 2021 whitepaper, “Self-Cleaning Orbit Myth,” notes that there are “recurring misrepresentations that Low-Earth Orbits between 500 kilometers and 600 kilometers in altitude are intrinsically ‘self-cleaning’ and that collisions among maneuverable or non-maneuverable (derelict) satellites in such orbits are therefore inconsequential.”

But in reality, authors note, LEO satellite collisions at these altitudes have consequences that persist for decades because of the time it takes fragments from those collisions to decay.

“If I have 4,000 satellites in orbit that I decide I’m going to maneuver if there’s a 1/1,000 chance of a collision… but if you have tens of thousands of satellites, I start having millions of conjunctions over time,” says Janka. “Even the FCC, when we raised this issue with them, acknowledged it. The FCC used to have this unifying assumption that if you could move, there would be no collision risk. But it’s an aggregate problem. There are about 30,000 pieces of debris that’s 10 centimeters, or the size of a grapefruit. But there’s a million pieces of debris between the size of a pea and the size of a grapefruit.”

What’s Ahead for 2022

Nevertheless, stakeholders feel cautiously optimistic that the industry will be able to effectively address these problems.

“Sustainability is key to making space a safer place, specifically when looking at the growing risk presented by space debris in Low-Earth orbit,” says Al Tadros, chief growth officer and executive vice president of Space Infrastructure for Redwire, who will be speaking during a panel on robotics and satellite servicing. “It is the responsibility of both private companies and government to approach space with sustainability in mind. There is a demand for critical tools for communications, Earth observation, and other services in Low-Earth Orbit; however, this demand needs to be met with an eye for sustainability and developing the next-generation technology that will help address this problem.”

Janka says that while innovations he’s seen recently are great for the global economy, careful planning will be critical to ensuring the ongoing health of space.

“The one thing that concerns me is that unless we have a plan, we risk focusing on the symptoms and not the disease itself,” says Janka. “Let’s do a holistic analysis, and look at the state of space today. How likely space is to evolve within different models, and then look at questions of — How do we manage that? Is it better to review large debris? Or is it better to look at small debris?” VS