UAE TO LEAD THE DISCUSSION ON SPACE ECONOMY, DARK AND QUIET SKIES AND CLIMATE

In a white paper published by the Global Future Council on space, for the Space for Net Zero of the World Economic Forum, more than 50% of essential climate variables are measurable only from space. Consequently, satellites are critical for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and different climate change indicators. Their measurements of air and sea surface temperatures, sea levels, as well as other space-based observations, reveal important consequences of a warming, changing world.

In addition, the space economy globally is now worth $546 {was $469 in 2021} billion dollars, with a double-digit growth forecast for the next few decades. More importantly is that the space economy will provide opportunities for growth for less developed countries as well, contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

However, there are gaps in modeling, mitigation and coordination. While hundreds of institutions conduct research into relevant climate change processes, a Global Earth Operations Center has yet to be established that leverages space data and expertise to conduct multidisciplinary science and engineering research,

Dr. Simonetta Di Pippo

New York University Abu Dhabi Professor of Physics

inform decision-making and coordinate net zero efforts.

This is why the topic of Dark and Quiet Skies as well as New Geopolitics in space has become very important to Space exploration discussions. There is no better Professor to cover this topic than Simonetta Di Pippo, Visiting Professor of Physics at the New York University Abu Dhabi. She holds a master›s degree in Astrophysics and Space Physics from Sapienza University of Rome and has held prominent positions advocating for developing a space economy that can benefit humanity and tackle climate change.

She is also the director of SEE Lab (Space Economy Evolution Laboratory), Professor of practice of space economy, at SDA Bocconi School of Management. She was also the director of UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs). In addition, she has been awarded with two honors causa degrees, in Environmental Studies and a PhD in International Affairs.

She also served as Director of Human Spaceflight at ESA, Director of the Observation of the Universe at the Italian Space Agency and led the European Space Policy Observatory at ASIBrussels. She is an Academician of IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) and member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on space since 2016. In 2009, she founded Women in Aerospace Europe and in 2017 she became UN International Gender Champion.

Why the UAE

Today Di Pippo, given her exposure at a global level on space related topics, was invited by NYUAD, to teach at a J-term in January 2019. She proposed ‘space diplomacy’ as the topic for her course. The course was a real success. This led to a tighter collaboration and in 2022, Di Pippo was appointed as Professor of Practice of physics teaching Space Diplomacy as a core course in both FALL 2 and SPRING 2, two times within one academic year.

Asking Di Pippo what attracted her to the UAE, she explains, “From March 2014 to March 2022, I served as the Director of the United Nations Office for outer space affairs. When I took up duty in 2014, the UAE Space Agency had still to be created and the country was not even a member yet of the Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space (COPUOS), the Committee in charge of dealing with outer space matters at the UN. I accompanied the process for the UAE to become a COPUOS member, which happened in 2015.”

She also jointly organized the first two editions of the World Space Forum in Dubai in collaboration with Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

In addition, she signed, in her capacity as Director of UNOOSA, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with both the UAESA and the MBRSC, with the aim of involving the UAE more and more in the UN multilateral process in space activities.

This culminated in the UAE chairing the COPUOS for two years with H.E. Omran Sharaf, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Advanced Science and Technology.

She explains, “I was always there, available and keen to support this process of growth.”

Di Pippo expresses her affinity to the UAE and the relationships she has developed especially to NYUAD for their teaching approach.

She reaffirms,” I really support the idea for the UAE to become a center of gravity for discussing the politics associated with space activities nowadays. My support in this respect is provided also through the Abu Dhabi Space Debate strategy council, which I’m a member of since 2024. We are currently preparing the next ADSB meeting to be held at the beginning of December 2024.”

ADSB meeting

The ADSB meeting will gather industry and government from the highest level. The two-day event is set to debate the space industry’s most pressing challenges and drive the new space economy. Topics will cover the new geopolitics of space, the security of national space assets, space exploration consortiums, the role of foreign policy in enabling space diplomacy, space sustainability, the rise of private sector in space exploration, multiplying the impact of space agencies, space tech innovation, shared global infrastructure, cyber defense for space activities, and finally climate change and the space industry.

The Dark and Quiet Skies

Decades since the beginning of the space era in 1957, with the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik, a lot has changed in the space arena. Currently we face thousands of satellites orbiting our planet in low earth orbit (3001000-km). Orbits are becoming congested and contested, and ensuring the safety, security and sustainability of outer space activities is becoming a difficult challenge. The increase in the number of satellites launched per year has been progressive year after year, but it was in 2019 that the situation started to become more complex, when megaconstellations came into play.

A Mega-constellation is a constellation of satellites working all together for the same goal, which may be composed of thousands of satellites each. Starlink, SpaceX›s megaconstellation, owned by Elon Musk, will soon have 42,000 satellites in orbit with the aim of connecting everyone everywhere. Others are following with other mega-constellations and other thousands of satellites. While serving a very high purpose of bridging the digital divide and supporting the creation of new markets, the price to be paid by astronomers seems to be high.

Two main factors have an impact on maintaining Dark and quiet skies, the first are satellites reflecting from sunlight and Earth albedo. They emit from radio transmissions and thermal radiation. The main question becomes how to prevent or minimize these effects? Satellite producers are in the best position to positively affect these since some part of the prevention or minimization can be accommodated in the very design of the satellite itself. Legal mechanisms could also be explored.

For example, the Dark and Quiet Skies II report recommends that satellite designs should have the capacity to avoid direct illumination of radio telescopes and radio-quiet zones and the cumulative background electromagnetic noise created by the constellations should be kept below the limit.

Di Pippo explains, “The Dark and quiet skies topic was brought to the attention of Member States at COPUOS under my tenure as Director and I was instrumental in advancing discussions and decisions on it. However, from outside the UN, I see that there is still the need to have a platform for facilitating open and transparent discussions among all the stakeholders, in order to preserve the needs of astronomers and the sustainability of space science in the future.”

She believes there is a need for a regulatory framework to support the ecosystem. In her opinion this may help satellites’ operations to work in a predictable environment. This requires strong coordination and collaboration among stakeholders.

Di Pippo notes that the UAE can play a strong role in this issue. She comments, “UAE is always very forward looking, and UAE’s vision in space activities is not an exception. In just a few years, UAE became a remarkable country in the space arena, and more is to come soon. I’m confident that we can develop the ecosystem in the UAE with the help of the outstanding profile of NYUAD, my experience and expertise, and UAE’s strategic approach to space. We can give an impulse on the path of finding a good way forward for ‘Visible Certainty: the quest for dark and quiet skies’, which is the title of the 2024 April conference.”

The conference in April as per Di Pippo aims to hear all viewpoints for ensuring sustainability in space activities preserving dark and quiet skies for astronomers of today and tomorrow. At the same time, the symposium will allow for mega-constellations to be considered strong supporters of space science and will investigate ways and means to help space scientists to better perform with their investigations.

Di Pippo states, “With all the stakeholders involved, this conference has the aspiration to become a facilitator for exchange of views and to provide some recommendations for a way forward in the relationship between astronomy, space science and mega-constellations.”

Space and climate Studies

More than 50% of essential climate variables are measurable only from space. Many satellites measure different weather, climate change and other properties of Earth, providing data on GHG emissions and insight into the consequences for all aspects of climate.

Di Pippo has also been a strong advocate for Space for net zero whether in her role as director of UNOOSA or in her current role as member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Space.

She even advocated this during her participation at COP28 UAE. She also covers this in her course on space diplomacy.

She states, “This year, the topic will be displayed at the summer J-term where I’ll be teaching Space economy and sustainability. Space economy, green economy and sustainability are strongly interconnected, and strong is also the connection of space with the 17 sustainable development goals as per the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. UAE did play an important role at COP28, and not only because it hosted it. I’m sure that more can be done, and I’m ready to help.“

The Future and Space Economy

In the final analysis as the space economy grows so will be the need for more sustainable practices in space, and this will require regulations, and increased cooperation.

The OECD definition for space economy is the combination of the specific space industry (i.e., development of satellites, launchers, ground network, etc.) and the applications and services developed including space-based data and applications which is benefiting everyone around the globe.

Di Pippo notes that while in 2021 the space economy was worth $469 billion in 2022 it grew to $546 billion. This will not slow down.

She states, “Space economy is the backbone of the economies of the future in the world, and without it, we cannot support socioeconomic sustainable development. Emerging and developing countries benefit a lot from open and free data access to geolocalization and precise navigation satellites technologies, as well as Earth Observation images. What we need is therefore to improve skills and capabilities in developing countries to utilize space-based data and this can be done through transfer of knowledge and capacity building activities.”