Unless new rules are agreed in a new global treaty, space risks being turned into a “man-made rubbish dump”, the chairman of the UK Space Agency has said.
Lord David Willetts also warned that launching satellites would become “trickier and trickier” if immediate steps were not taken to control space debris.
He praised British industry for its innovation in creating new spacecraft that will help clear up the rubbish and repair failing satellites.
But without prompt action the world risks “trashing” space, with already 7,000 satellites in orbit above Earth, he said.
“We think of space as somehow pure or pristine or clear and yet we're in danger of trashing it and making another man-made rubbish dump,” he told the Global Network On Sustainability In Space (GNOSIS). “We're very concerned as well about access to space as space debris will make launching missions in the future trickier and trickier.”
There are mounting worries that increasing space debris could lead to a catastrophe called the Kessler Effect, where a chain reaction of collisions would make it impossible to navigate any spacecraft and knock out global satellite systems.
Lord Willetts outlined a concern highlighted by the UK’s leading astronaut, Tim Peake, who spent six months on the International Space Station. “Tim said in some ways the scariest thing you did was not the launch, not the return, but the times when in the space station they were asked to go into their Soyuz [escape] modules in case space debris, damaged the space station itself.”
The former science and universities minister was speaking on Thursday at the second GNOSIS conference, that brought academics and industry together to discuss cosmic debris and protecting spacecraft.
He lamented the lost opportunity to introduce new rules for space at the 50th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty due to poor relations between the US and Russia. The 1967 agreement forms the basis of international space law and currently 112 countries are parties to the treaty,
Lord Willetts said it could have been a moment to “upgrade and modernise the overall international legal framework within which we operate”, but unfortunately bad international relations ruled it out.
Given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the possibility of an international agreement is now even more difficult.
The UAE, which signed the Outer Space Treaty in 2000, has a burgeoning and responsible space programme with plans to send its Rashid rover to the moon later this month, after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had to cancel its launch on Thursday.
Britain’s own industry is growing dramatically with the first aircraft-assisted launch of a satellite from Spaceport Cornwall potentially later this month, and next year the inaugural blast-off of a vertical rocket from the Saxavord space centre in Scotland.
“We see our space launch capability as really helping tackle some of those challenges of space debris removal and in-orbit servicing,” said Lord Willetts.
“There's a sense that the UK is really a constructive contributor to a global problem. We're trying to do it through technologies, through international activity and by making the UK a clear leader in shaping responsible space law.”
He also praised the work of the UK-based Astroscale company that says it is the first with a vision for the safe development of space “for the benefit of future generations” including in-orbit repair.
“I suspect in the future there will be more and more capacity to repair broken or malfunctioning satellites,” said Lord Willetts, 66. “And Astroscale is a really exciting company moving beyond active debris removal into in-orbit servicing as well. That is another area where British companies are keen to attract companies around the world.”
He also proposed that the military’s early ballistic missile warning station at Fylingdales in Yorkshire should have its immense capabilities freely available to all, to track “space situational awareness”.
Fylingdales has a secondary function of detecting orbiting objects making it ideal to track debris. “Sustainability in space is crucial and we try to support that through the UK Space Agency,” Lord Willetts said.
The%20specs
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
- Malaysia bt Hong Kong by 3 wickets
- Oman bt Nepal by 7 wickets
- UAE bt Singapore by 215 runs
Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu, Sep 6: Final
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20profile
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Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Scotland v Ireland:
Scotland (15-1): Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Sam Johnson, Sean Maitland; Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); Josh Strauss, James Ritchie, Ryan Wilson; Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Simon Berghan, Stuart McInally, Allan Dell
Replacements: Fraser Brown, Jamie Bhatti, D'arcy Rae, Ben Toolis, Rob Harley, Ali Price, Pete Horne, Blair Kinghorn
Coach: Gregor Townsend (SCO)
Ireland (15-1): Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack Conan, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; James Ryan, Quinn Roux; Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (capt), Cian Healy
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour
Coach: Joe Schmidt (NZL)
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Have you been targeted?
Tuan Phan of SimplyFI.org lists five signs you have been mis-sold to:
1. Your pension fund has been placed inside an offshore insurance wrapper with a hefty upfront commission.
2. The money has been transferred into a structured note. These products have high upfront, recurring commission and should never be in a pension account.
3. You have also been sold investment funds with an upfront initial charge of around 5 per cent. ETFs, for example, have no upfront charges.
4. The adviser charges a 1 per cent charge for managing your assets. They are being paid for doing nothing. They have already claimed massive amounts in hidden upfront commission.
5. Total annual management cost for your pension account is 2 per cent or more, including platform, underlying fund and advice charges.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
