Space capacity allocation for the sustainability of space activities

Europe/Rome
Politecnico di Milano

Politecnico di Milano

Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 32, 20133 Milano MI, Italy
Camilla Colombo (Politecnico di Milano), Andrea Muciaccia (Politecnico di Milano), Lorenzo Giudici (Politecnico di Milano), Alessandro Rossi (IFAC-CNR), Francesca Letizia (European Space Agency), Stijn Lemmens (European Space Agency)
Description

Workshop topics and outcome

Space, as any other ecosystem, has a finite capacity. The continuous growth of space activities, due to our increasing reliance on services from Space, the privatisation of the space market and the lower cost of deploying smaller and distributed missions in orbit, is from one side improving human-life quality and, however, it is also contributing to overloading this delicate system. International discussion is ongoing at the Inter Agency Debris Coordination Committee and at COPUOS on how to measure the overall capacity of the space environment and assess the impact that individual missions have on it.

The “Space capacity allocation for the sustainability of space activities” workshop will be held in Politecnico di Milano (Italy) on 6-8 June 2023, in Piazza Leonardo Campus.

The workshop is organised by Politecnico di Milano, the European Space Agency Space and the Italian Centre of Research (CNR). The workshop is sponsored by the GREEN SPECIES project funded by the European Research Council lead by Politecnico di Milano and co-sponsored by Secure World Foundation.

This workshop is open to all researchers, space operators and regulators working in the space debris field. The aim is not only to present current advances in research on space capacity modelling and management, but above all to offer a constructive and interdisciplinary framework to discuss and work collaboratively to advance the discussion on space sustainability and space capacity management.

In this view, the following topics will be addressed and discussed during the workshop:

  • Modelling the long-term evolution of the space debris environment,
  • Defining indices to assess the impact of missions to the space environment,
  • Measuring and defining thresholds for the overall space carrying capacity,
  • Proposals to manage the space environment on the long-term,
  • Policy and economic studies on space debris mitigations and applicability of capacity management strategies.

As outcome of the workshop, a special issue of a journal might be initiated with invited publications. In addition, a report and statement of the outcome to be shared with the outcome of the discussion will be prepared.

Workshop organisation

The workshop will be organised in presence with some parts in hybrid (i.e., in-person and remote) format, with presentations by participants alternating with working sessions and discussions.

For organisational aspects and to make discussions in working groups more interactive, only participants in-person may take part in them.

Some abstracts presentations will be accepted for remote, but priority will be given to in-person presentations.

Space Debris Day

On the 9th of June, Politecnico di Milano will also organise the second edition of the “Space Debris Day” for university students. If you want to prolong your stay to the 9th June and act as testimonial and presenter for this initiative, we would be very honoured!