Space Sustainability

Space sustainability refers to the practice of preserving the outer space environment as a safe, operational domain for the socioeconomic benefit of humanity both today and in the long term. Although the space environment is vast, the popularity of some orbital regimes—due to their usefulness for certain space missions—make some regions more congested than others and subject to dangerous debris-generating collisions.

Astrodynamic models can inform operator-, state-, and international-level sustainability guidelines that mitigate the space debris problem in the most popular orbital regimes and ensure equitable access to space for new satellite operators, including those from developing countries.