“Space for all” might not be as far away as it sounds

The international space community came together under the motto of ‘Space for All’, at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress held in Paris in September 2022.

The international space community came together under the motto of ‘Space for All’, at the 73rd International Astronautical Congress held in Paris in September 2022. Image: REUTERS/Steve Nesius

Eytan Stibbe
Founding Partner, Vital Capital Fund

Listen to the article

  • Once the domain of just a few space agencies, the final frontier is rapidly becoming more accessible.
  • But to ensure that the opening of space benefits us all, the global conversation around space must be open and accessible to all.
  • One such way of doing that is opening up research functions in space, for example on the International Space Station, to Earth-based researchers.

It might once have been considered the final frontier, but every year, more and more states and private companies are making their forays into space. This year, India landed on the dark side of the moon, for example, and the UAE's astronaut Dr. Sultan Al Neyadi returned from a six-month stint on the International Space Station.

And in September, NASA safely brought debris from asteroid Bennu to Earth, promising scientific discoveries not seen before. Space is already becoming more accessible — but can we go further?

At the 73rd International Astronautical Congress held in Paris in September 2022, the international space community came together under the motto of ‘Space for All’.

The community recognized that the success of space exploration in the 21st century must be measured not only in new discoveries and ‘firsts’ but also in who is included and who participates in the global conversation around space.

Have you read?

Making 'space for all' a reality

Only if space is made accessible as a realm of discovery and creativity for all can we ensure that our endeavours in space are as focused, illuminating and responsible as possible.

The more diverse the perspectives involved in the conversation, the better it will be.

Crucially, this plurality of voices, emerging from an informed and passionate global space community, will ensure that space missions remain focused on the greater good of humanity and our planet.

But what will it take to make space for all a reality? This question has many answers, from educational programmes and communication strategies to institutional partnerships.

One way to make space benefit us all is the development of new capacities within existing procedures for space missions, with a particular focus on the International Space Station (ISS).

During my journey to space as part of the 17-day Ax-1 Mission in April 2022, I realized there are opportunities to integrate ‘space for all’ activities within the ISS’s complex system of operational processes. By identifying these opportunities, we can extend space missions’ contribution to bettering the quality of life on Earth as well as preserving Earth’s ecosystems.

One such proposal is the Vital Climate Band, currently being developed in collaboration with the ISS research integration office at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. The Vital Climate Band is a proposal to utilize existing resources on the ISS to conduct Earth observation with the purpose of contributing to research on the climate crisis.

Currently, many scientific experiments and technological demonstrations entail substantial payload costs because they require cargo transportation to the ISS. Research that does not require cargo transportation, such as Earth observation conducted from the ISS Cupola with cameras already on board, incurs little to no extra costs and provides high value to the global public good.

Setting an example: The Rakia Mission

A good example of how the Vital Climate Band works is the ILAN-ES research I conducted as part of the Rakia Mission, my own Ax-1 mission. The ILAN-ES project studies lightning and electrical phenomena above thunderstorms, known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs). This work has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of thunderstorms — knowledge that could be life-saving in a time of increased extreme weather events.

During the Rakia Mission, global weather forecasts that estimated the regions with the highest probability for TLE occurrences were uploaded, and from the ISS Cupola, the team of astronauts observed events from above.

The difficulty of predicting weather events made capturing the TLEs when they occurred challenging, as doing so would have meant interrupting other scheduled activities. The Vital Climate Band seeks to alleviate this issue by creating a designated 'band' in the ISS Optimis scheduling system, to which the ground operations team adds pre-selected Earth observation events daily. To appreciate how radical this approach is, it must be borne in mind that the Optimis scheduling is prepared months in advance. Uniquely, these activities are not tied to an individual astronaut's schedule — any astronaut on board the ISS can 'claim' the event, thus allowing far more events to be captured. The Climate Band works with the ISS scheduling system to allow greater flexibility in recording more events.

The ILAN-ES project also has an important educational component. In the future, the goal is to partner with schools on several continents, where students will conduct simultaneous observation of TLEs from the ground. Increasing the flexibility of observation from above will increase the chance for successful simultaneous observation — something which has never been achieved and would greatly enrich the data.

Opening space to the scientific community

The Climate Band will draw on research proposals submitted during an open call to the scientific community. This is a further innovative aspect of the programme. As part of the Rakia Mission, my team launched a call for research proposals from scientists and academics and received more than 80 proposals.

Our survey revealed that only 13% had previously considered conducting research on the ISS, as many simply considered it unrealistic; a pipe dream.

The Climate Band will thus further open the door for researchers to leverage a singular laboratory — the ISS and its unique environmental conditions — to advance scientific knowledge. Proposals with an educational, public-facing component, such as ILAN-ES, will be given special consideration.

The Climate Band is just one example of an innovation that can be made to bring us closer to achieving space for all. Often, we are exhorted to ‘think big’ — and this certainly has its place. However, in the context of making space for all a reality, sometimes a small, targeted change can have a big impact.

Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

Tech and Innovation

Share:
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum