This is an edited extract from D. Raghunandan’s interview on the Land and Climate Podcast. Listen here:
Despite the international rivalries and pressures we face on Earth, India is largely self-reliant in space. The Indian space sector can now fulfil most technical requirements on its own.
India has satellites studying the weather, land–use, forests and oceans – areas we would not be able to analyse by terrestrial, Earth-based surveying. This work has been through the public sector, and these are ways in which the space sector is paying back to the public.
But space has now gone private. Privatised space exploration engages in a different set of activities than public space expeditions. Like all private ventures, privatised space exploration is driven by profit.
The private sector is not interested in the origins of the universe or finding out what is happening on distant planets unless they can figure out a way of selling it to the public. Instead, they are mainly focused on space tourism. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic aim to bring down costs and to raise the number of passengers engaged in space tourism.
If space travel becomes cheap, everybody will want a joyride – and emissions will soar.
There is another problem that has not been paid much attention in environmental circles: space waste. Ten years ago, satellites were clunky bits of machinery, used mostly for communications. We now have micro satellites. Elon Musk’s Starlink alone has 7,000 small satellites orbiting the planet, and each has a lifespan of around five years. That means that around 1,500 small satellites degrade and fall back to Earth each year, which need to be replaced annually.
These satellites have been designed to break up and burn out in the atmosphere to prevent from crashing into populated areas. When they burn out, they leave behind residual matter, mostly metallic oxides. This adds a huge number of debris and waste gases to the atmosphere. It is cheaper for SpaceX to launch thousands of these short–life satellites than a few durable ones.
And this is just SpaceX. Everyone wants in on the space game.
Public sector space activities are amenable to regulation. Private sector activities are not. Elon Musk, in particular, is famously averse to regulation. After a recent rocket explosion over the Caribbean, he dismissed safety provisions requiring an investigation before the next launch.
Elon Musk wants to go to the Moon. He wants to establish a space station to start his mining, exploration and extraction. He plans to use the Moon as a stepping stone to shoot rockets towards Mars and other planets. Launching from the Moon would be much cheaper than from Earth, he claims. He has articulated this very strongly.
Meanwhile, guiding principles set out through NASA’s Artemis Program spell out no difference between the public sector and the private sector. Under current US policy, private companies that reach the Moon can exploit its resources – supposedly for “humankind,” but in reality, this could be for corporate profit. Many countries, including the UK and India, have signed on, all permitting private sector exploitation and extraction on the Moon.
We have not shown great responsibility on Earth in terms of ecological preservation or conservation. We have in fact gone the other way. We have driven our planet as close to self-destruction as we can.
If this is how we treat a world with established institutions and regulations, what will happen in space – where no one is watching?
As told to Bertie Harrison-Broninski, with additional editing by Anna Spree.
D. Rhagunandan is the Director of the Dehli Science Forum. He is a policy analyst and scientist specialising in aerospace, aviation and climate.
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