Houston, we got an empty water bottle floating in space.

For me and many Gen Z fellows, the idea of nature has always been laced with a sense of awe and urgency. While learning about icebergs and polar bears, tigers and rainforests, our wide-eyed discovery of the world was immediately pushed aside by the knowledge, usually gained within the span of a sentence, that it was all in danger. Imminent, evolutionary-scale danger. The odd mix of marvel and premature nostalgia that tainted our idea of the world is hard to describe, along with the crushing realization that all that was wonderful and unknown was about to be snatched from our hands before we could to do something about it. Space had the privilege of being exempt from these feelings. For a long time, it remained the ultimate promised land, the last refuge of fantasy and endless possibilities. By the time I found out that we had managed to pollute that, too, my ability to be surprised by human behavior had long gone down the drain of cheerful nihilism.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

Time cover for June 6, 1960 | Vol. LXXV №23

The Space Race, or “What if we could keep these good vibes going, but on the Moon?”

Our species has a knack for being in places where we don’t belong. We don’t have any means to dive or to breathe underwater, yet we stubbornly pursued our exploration of the oceans. We don’t have hooves or lungs adapted to high altitudes, yet people climb the highest mountains on the planet, for fun. We are not equipped with wings and our bones shatter when hitting the ground: still, we built planes. So obviously, even before we knew it was possible, we started dreaming of going to space.

Humans also have a passion for conflict. We do love a good old murder fest, and most technological advancements have been achieved with the goal of using it for war. Social scientists still don’t know if this is a bug in the operating system or a learned behavior. Whatever the reason, this inspired us to develop great tech, made in the image of their creators in that it has immense potential for both good and bad.

By the time technology was good enough to try to make it to space, only two international actors could afford it: the USA and the USSR. They were not on good terms at all, even though they had just won World War II together. That conflict had the peculiarity of having ended on the biggest cliffhanger of recorded human history: two atomic bombs were sent over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the feeling was starting to sink in that maybe we had taken it a bit too far. Scientists realized that if we used this brand-new piece of tech in future wars, we would end up wiping out most life on Earth, leading to the famous quote “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”[1]. So, the war that followed underwent a major rebrand and was called “the Cold War”.

The “coldness” of this war is debatable since millions of people across the world lost their lives in staged coups, brutal dictatorships and proxy wars happening outside the Western world. What the atomic bomb did, though, was bring to the realm of strategy the weaponization of the unused potential for destruction. Game theory specialists call this “the chicken game”, and I think of it as the “You think you’re crazy? Well, I’m crazier” game. It goes like that comedy bit you see in action movies, where two people lay their weapons on a table and keep whipping out bigger and better weapons, which get increasingly absurd and unnecessary, and the tension rises until eventually they move on without using them. Everyone in the room knows that if those weapons were used it would be game over, so the real provocation stands in showing them and convincing the others that we are ready to use them. I present to you the Arms Race.

While this piling of artillery on a table was going on, the idea of space was really starting to tickle world leaders. This is when the Arms Race also became the Space Race, and leaders started investing to develop bigger and better space technology, reaching space-related milestones before the other, with the goal of threatening enemies with the potential of launching the ultimate attack from above.

Race to space — Image via the Ultra Swank Flickr Group

Some rules: no calling dibs in Space, and let’s keep Star Wars a sci-fi and not a documentary.

In 1957 the USSR launched the first satellite to space, immediately sending the USA into a downward spiral as they felt world hegemony, the real prize of the Cold War, slipping from their fingers. Since humanity’s pattern recognition ability had not yet been obliterated, lawyers and specialists knew it was imperative to take some distance from the “anything goes” principle and lay some ground rules. Enter Space Law, the coolest-sounding body of legislation yet, which began in 1966 with the Outer Space Treaty. We will expand more extensively on that Space Law, but for now there are four principles to keep in mind, four pillars, if you will.

The non-appropriation principle (1) states that space, planets, and asteroids are not up for grabs and that all space activities need to benefit humankind as a whole. In more technical terms, “Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination”[2] and “is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”[3].

The free access principle (2) states that everyone is free to go to space, if they have the means to. Or more precisely, “Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies”[4].

The responsibility principle (3) attributes responsibility of damage caused by space activities to States: “States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space […] whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by nongovernmental entities […]”[5]

The last (4) is the principle of peaceful use, which bans the use of weapons of mass destruction in space and shows that we haven’t completely lost our sanity after all. “States […] undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner. The Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes”[6].

Now it’s the late 60s, we have humans in space and a series of neat rules to follow. We will get into more detail on why international law and especially space law is complicated to enforce. This, right here, is also the moment space pollution started.

Space turtles choking on plastic nets

Mandy Barker, Refused, from Times

When thinking of space pollution, we might think of soda cans floating among satellites and pieces of machinery bumping in slow motion against asteroids. But things in Space don’t stand still: everything moves, all the time, at enormous speed. Space itself is moving, expanding, and has been since the beginning of time.

Back to space pollution.

Most objects we launch into Space are sent in orbit. We will get into more detail on the characteristics and properties of orbits, but what’s important for now is objects found there are essentially spinning around our planet, very fast. Even a millimetric fleck of paint spinning around the Earth can open a bullet-sized hole on a satellite if they collide. What we call space debris, and can also be called space junk, is not caused by the astronauts in the International Space Station chucking snack bars wrappers out the window. It is caused by pieces of machinery coming off during launch or while in orbit, by “dead” satellites orbiting the Earth, cluttering the orbit, and explosions of said dead satellites due to leftover fuel or batteries. This is where space debris differs from the ones find littering the highways on Earth: terrestrial junk doesn’t spontaneously multiply, whereas the more space debris there are, the more there will be, due to the fact that by bumping against each other at high speed they create more inert and useless piece of machinery spinning around. As of now it is an irreversible process, and there’s no cleanup team made up of Sunday-morning volunteers for Space.

This is where Cosmos for Humanity comes in.

Enter the Cosmos Rangers

The Red-Cross of Outer space

Cosmos for Humanity is an ONG devoted to the protection of space. Orbits are a limited resource, just like drinkable water and forests, and they are vital in our current way of life. You’d be surprised by how many things would change in your life if all satellites disappeared[7]. GPS location, satellite TV, meteorological predictions, monitoring of climate change and natural disasters are only a few of the things that would be impacted. Not only that, but exploration of space and studies of the Universe and on the origins of life on Earth would be impossible if we couldn’t use orbits anymore. For all these reasons, we think that since the access to Space is a Public good, and the orbits are a Common-pool resource, we should all have the responsibility to protect them. One of the ways we plan to do so is through the creation of the Outer Space Footprint, an indicator that would help consumers and companies (us), the space industry and space agencies (both government-sponsored and private) to adopt more responsible behaviors.

“The planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do” — or is there?

While it is extremely surprising that we managed to pollute Space immediately after starting its exploration, and we are very close to losing a resource that we just started using, all hope is not lost. Just as it is not too late to act on climate change on Earth, it is not too late to act on space pollution. Actually the two are linked, because many space-dependent technologies help us monitor climate change. If you have a knack for sustainability and are interested in space preservation, we invite you to get more informed on space pollution and space sustainability thanks to our article, and support our organization!

[1] Einstein

[2] Article I, Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies

[3] Article II, Ibid

[4] Article I, Ibid

[5] Article VI, Ibid

[6] Article IV, Ibid

[7]https://www.ted.com/talks/moriba_jah_what_if_every_satellite_suddenly_disappeared