Speaker
Description
These days, we go into “Space 4.0”, as the European Space Agency (ESA) likes to call it, marked by public-private partnerships. The space industry has a growth projection of 11% every year, and when we think of space, we think of unimaginable sizes and infinite expanses. Yet our most important orbits are already quite filled, even with junk, and space is limited. What if our space environment became overcrowded and unusable? How to address the space debris issue is only one of several questions surrounding the current developments. What is the future of space tourism? When will space mining become real? Can it actually be sustainable? Should we make money out of our common heritage? All these are aspects of the question of how we can set off into space sustainably. After all, our time on Earth is limited, and we need to launch. In economic terms, we must ask ourselves whether the growth paradigm can be extended indefinitely when adding outer space and a possible multi-planetary society into the equation, or whether the Club of Rome’s call for an equilibrium still needs to be heeded. In any case, there is a need to balance our spacefaring endeavours with the pressing anthropogenic challenges our planet is currently facing. We also need to consider the impact of the threatening loss of our pristine night sky on animal nightlife and earthbound astronomical observations.
