Space Sustainability

The World Space Week Association (WSWA) has released the 2022 edition of its Annual Report, which provides a comprehensive overview of the Association's performance and achievements in the past year. "Space and Sustainability" was the World Space Week (WSW)'s 2022 theme to raise awareness of the key role of space in the sustainability of life on Earth and the importance of sustaining the space environment. 

UK Space Agency has welcomed four entrepreneurs to the accelerator programme this year. Their backgrounds range from simulations and sustainability to propulsion and a circular space economy.

This Space Café WebTalk will feature Héloïse Vertadier and Christopher Johnson in a conversation with Torsten Kriening about "Lunar Policy Handbook: Guiding Responsible and Sustainable Development of the Moon". This document is a reference guidebook for government personnel and private actors in the space industry. It is designed to be a high-level guide that is useful for a broad audience of space actors, outlining policy issues and operational considerations related to lunar activities.

The OPS-SAT Mission Control Team has received its trophy after winning the 2023 International SpaceOps Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award recognizes the team’s outstanding achievement in creating and operating the world’s first mission dedicated to improving space operations by allowing rapid experimentation of mission-critical processes in an open, flying laboratory. It is the first time that an ESA-only operating mission has won the award since its inception in 2006. 

ClearSpace and LeoLabs have signed a Memorandum of Understanding recognizing their shared vision for a safe and sustainable space ecosystem and their mutual efforts in making this vision a reality.  The partnership signals a desire to build on this mutual success and previous collaborative efforts, such as the joint LEO Kinetic Space Safety Workshop in May 2022. The MOU also serves as a formal declaration of ClearSpace and LeoLabs’ intent to work together on several new initiatives.

The idea of space-based solar power has been around since the 1960s, but recently gained new momentum. While we already use solar power today on Earth, there are a few drawbacks to putting solar panels on our rooftops or fields. The most important is the intermittent nature of Earth-based solar power, as its power generation fluctuates during the day - and goes down to zero at night. In addition, to compensate for this intermittency and the low load factor (appx. 11 % yearly average), large areas of land have to be covered with solar power to produce enough energy, and storage or backup capacities are needed for the nights and winter months.

In a recent episode of Space Café Canada, Dr. Jessica West interviewed Hira Nadeem, a Space Systems Engineer at Planet Labs and co-founder of Zenith Canada Pathways Foundation, which provides internship and mentorship opportunities for students in Canada to support a more inclusive space industry. They discussed Hira's journey into the space industry, her experience working in both Canada and the United States, her initiatives to create opportunities for Canadian students from all backgrounds in space-related fields, and the need for industry to pursue talent recruitment and retention through more intentional designs that nurture diversity from young hires through leadership positions.

Equatorial Space Systems has raised a Seed Round totaling USD 1.5 million. This fund will develop the company’s Dorado commercial-sounding rocket family, which will provide low-cost space access for science experiments, technology demonstrators, and academic payloads. lev8.VC led the funding round, with Seeds Capital and Masik Enterprises joining as well.

For All Moonkind, Inc. has announced the formation of For All Moonkind's Institute on Space Law and Ethics. The Institute, whose mission is to promote the articulation and development of an ethical foundation and framework for responsible space behavior, will serve as a platform for the exchange and innovation of ideas regarding law, morality, and ethics, amplifying diverse thoughts on the interpretation and expansion of the law as it affects human space activities.

Destinus, a European aerospace firm specializing in high-speed hydrogen-powered airplanes, has been chosen by the Spanish Ministry of Science’s Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI) program to participate in a strategic initiative and received grants to further R&D for supersonic flight utilizing hydrogen as fuel.