Space Debris Archives

Space, as the author Douglas Adams said, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is”. After 6 decades of launching spacecraft, some orbits are now congested with space debris from collisions and poor end-of-life mission management. This has now become a serious hazard and even a danger to operational spacecraft. With plans to launch thousands of additional satellites, the Mega Constellations, in the coming decade, the need for some sort of “traffic management” in orbit has never been greater.

The Secure World Foundation was established in 2002 by philanthropists Marcell Arsenault and his wife Cynda Collins Arsenault. Its vision of “sustainable and peaceful uses of outer space contributing to global stability and benefits on Earth” is timely. In the last decade, the urgency to address the profound impact of climate change on Earth has finally been (almost) heeded, the next decade will focus on space. The SWF is informing and leading this debate.

Dr Brian Weeden is the Director of Program Planning for Secure World Foundation. In the past, his responsibilities included intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) operations, working at Cheyenne Mountain and Vandenberg Air Force Base, and specialising in Space Situational Awareness in the US Air Force and Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Centre (JSpOC). In this episode, he talks about the key issues of space debris, preventing the militarisation of space, raising awareness of cyber threats to spacecraft, developing resources for the many nations now developing space programmes, and fostering standards and policies for commercial uses of space.

The SWF produces some very interesting and readable resources. A selection below

PDF – Weapons and Conflict in Space: History, Reality, and The Future. A really good primary from Brian Weeden and others

PDF – Handbook for new actors in space

PDF – Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment

PDF – Tomorrow’s Battlefield: Emerging Areas of Military Competition – Space,

PDF – Weapons and Conflict in Space: History, Reality, and The Future

MP3 – Big Data, Big Space, Big Risk: Addressing Cyber Security Threats

PDF – Preparing For a “Normalized” Space Domain – Secure World Foundation