ALL eyes are on the COP26 climate summit, which starts in Glasgow, UK, on Sunday. But amid the “anarchy”, in the words of former UK climate minister Ed Miliband, of the hot phase of negotiations , in quieter moments, we might cast our thoughts to a problem fast brewing further skywards.
In mid 2019, there were 2000 satellites in orbit. That number has now doubled in two years, spurred on by the ambitions of private communications companies. A third of all satellites belong to just one swarm: Starlink, operated by SpaceX.
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Satellites aren’t bad per se, of course. They are vital to scientific research, providing data on everything from the effects of climate change to the movements of pirate ships. A laudable aim of Starlink is to bring internet access to communities that wouldn’t otherwise have it.
But the attitude of many companies and institutions involved seems to be a laissez-faire assurance we can continue pumping as much stuff into orbit as we like with no consequences. Warnings from scientists about the repercussions have been met largely with indifference.
Those warnings come in two forms. First, for astronomy, as our clear view of the night sky becomes impeded by thousands of tonnes of often highly reflective space metal. Second, for the satellites themselves and potentially for human life and limb, due to the increasing amounts of space junk (discarded satellites and bits that have fallen off) careering around.
“So far, the attitude has been that we can pump as much as we like into orbit with no consequences”
On that second point – the parallels with climate change continue to reverberate – we may already be too late to stop bad things happening. Minor perturbations in orbits that could lead to major collisions build up only slowly, and may already have begun. A further irony is that a warming planet might exacerbate the problem by reducing the drag on satellites, keeping them in orbit for longer.
Solving the problem means taking a leaf out of the COP book. The world needs to take space junk seriously and establish an international mechanism to solve the problem in the interests of all the parties involved – and in a more timely manner than we ever did with climate change.
