The starry night sky has fascinated humanity for countless millennia. For most of that time, it was an untouchable, immutable and vast expanse that was beyond the influence of anyone. But the present-day commercial space race has created new threats to the relationship between people and the celestial expanse by crowding the night sky and polluting the atmosphere.
Recent research has found that accumulations of metal particles from satellites disintegrating in the upper atmosphere can alter temperatures and wind flows, ultimately affecting surface climate patterns.
There are more than 15,000 active and inactive satellites orbiting the Earth. Twenty-five years ago, there were fewer than 1,000.At any given hour, there are hundreds of them overhead above North America and Europe. Several companies plan to launch additional huge fleets of satellites over the next 10 to 20 years. These are communications satellites, data center satellites, and even mirrored satellites that would sell strips of sunlight to Earth-based customers. And then there is the ongoing space tourism industry.
Presently, international rules and diplomatic efforts to govern off-Earth activities are having little effect on the space race. The rush to commercialize space risks the same pitfalls that created the terrestrial environmental problems we face today. Societies, governments, and companies need to collectively decide whether certain space-based activities should proceed at all, and who gets to make those decisions. No matter how the decisions are made, we all face the consequences.
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References:
A Commercial Space Race Prompts a Thorny Question: Who Owns the Sky?
