Global Satellite Industry must tackle Space Security

The satellite industry must figure out how multiple stakeholders can work together to manage space and mitigate debris while addressing different concerns.

For example, such as lack of trust or the presence of bad actors, and the need for open, interoperable technology, experts said in a space domain awareness panel during SATELLITE 2023.

Experts said that positive economic forecasts for the industry could be tempered by the risk of space debris. We’ve got an excess of 130 million fragments less than a centimeter in size zooming around out in space, and 1 million fragments up to about 4 inches.

Moderator Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president for Government Strategy and Policy with Inmarsat Government, is now setting the scene of the issue.

U.S. Army General Dickinson noted that there are 7,400 flying satellites, a 22% increase over five years, and 41,000 pieces of debris that are being tracked. These include rocket bodies, defunct satellites, or other unidentified objects.

Noting the unprecedented growth in assets in space over the last decade, Dr. Luisa Buinhas, co-founder of Vyoma, suggested it’s time for the space industry and governments to reassess and prioritize protecting space assets.

We have become all too dependent on these space-based services whether we are consciously aware of it. Our ability to understand what’s happening hasn’t kept up. We can still only track 3% of objects that are larger than a paperclip.

And even that 3% of track-able objects are difficult to track with currently available technology. The kinetic impact of such space spare parts could destroy operating satellites.

Speakers pointed to the lack of space traffic control or a legal international framework to manage space traffic.

Eric Ingram, co-founder and CEO of SCOUT Space called for three things to solve these challenges: creativity, collaboration, and pro-activity. Ingram believes the industry will see more collaboration in the commercial, or NGO, area.

The extent to which we can improve collaboration, said Buinhas, hinges on stakeholders’ ability to come to an understanding of what kinds of data are acceptable to share.

Andrea Cardellicchio, head of SSO Commercial Development for Telespazio, said regulatory activities in the USA are similar to what’s going on in Europe, in the quest to define the rules of space traffic management.

There is one deep, underlying question that is being asked in the commercial community in both in the USA and in Europe.

It’s how much of those services have to be freely available to users. For people that are making money in this industry, it’s very important to us what is the right way because we are either creating or destroying the market.

Satellite Today.com / ABC Flash Point Satellite News 2023.