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Looking up to the skies once presented a world completely unknown, but we now know what lies beyond this planet. Space is both mysterious and essential to life on Earth, but what does space sustainability really mean?
Space to Grow closed out its first season with a wrap-up episode with hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden from Astroscale. They looked back on past conversations regarding space sustainability, policy, technology, and more. Then shared what they hope to bring to the show in its second season.
“The best part has been the guests we’ve had and the diversity of those voices,” Weeden said. Blackerby echoed this sentiment, highlighting the nine space experts who were on the show.
“The space community recognizes the importance, but most people outside of it don’t know how space affects them because it’s hard to grasp. Our speakers explained how orbital environments and space impact society.” - Chris Blackerby
Weeden noted a central theme in their messages on achieving sustainability. “It’s time to change our culture and how we view space to make it more sustainable.”
Blackerby also remarked about how their conversations have created awareness of the impact on society. “The space community recognizes the importance, but most people outside of it don’t know how space affects them because it’s hard to grasp. Our speakers explained how orbital environments and space impact society.”
While they covered many topics, Weeden said, “We could’ve been more technology focused and explaining how the technology works. Space sustainability is a multi-disciplinary issue.”
Blackerby agreed they should prioritize technical topics. He also wants to dig in more on the fundraising, customer development, investments, and business side of space. “There are more stories about the growth of companies, big and small, and how they form and grow to tell.”
Ultimately, the resounding emphasis of the show is promoting the responsible use of space and moving to a “leave no trace” culture.
Looking at space sustainability through an environmental and ecological lens changes the perspective. It makes it more tangible and inclusive. That’s the message of Moriba Ja. Ja, currently a professor of aerospace engineering and other space-related safety and security topics, joined Space to Grow hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden. Ja has an impressive background, with tenures at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Jah’s fascination with space began early, during days of looking at the sky while in military school. He then enlisted in the Air Force and noticed some strange lights in the Montana sky. It wasn’t aliens but space debris. That drove him to want to study engineering and learn about litter in the sky and orbital regimes.
“Most of humanity isn’t part of the space sustainability or exploration. It’s an insular community, but we need to connect people outside of space." - Moriba Jah
“I began to see the orbital environment as another resource that needs protection,” Jar said. That idea kept building in his mind, becoming even clearer when he lived in Maui and saw the ecological impact to paradise.
“I was connecting what was going on in space and what was going on in Maui. Space needs to be recognized as an ecosystem and finite research. Then there will be environmental protection, and we can apply sustainability metrics for land, air, and ocean to space,” Ja shared.
Jah realized that to bring the message of space environmentalism to a broader audience. “Most of humanity isn’t part of the space sustainability or exploration. It’s an insular community, but we need to connect people outside of space,” he shared.
Jah opined that space debris is the result of people not complying with what science says, and the key to removal is sustainability. “Regimes are already at capacity, and 96% of it is trash. Whoever owns it should be responsible for removing it. If they don’t, then we need a body that can give that capacity back.”
Space sustainability includes many facets. There’s the science, and there’s the policy. However, both have to be part of the conversation to achieve objectives. Space to Grow hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden spoke with esteemed physicist and space policy leader Dr. David Kendall. Dr. Kendall was the Chair of the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the Director-General of the Canadian Space Agency, and a faculty member at the International Space University.
The hosts asked Dr. Kendall if it was harder to be a scientist or diplomat. “They are both challenging in different ways. Science is a singular activity that requires full immersion. Diplomacy puts you out there talking to people.”
Dr. Kendall had no formal plans to transition, but a conversation with his wife made him apply to become the Director-General of the Canadian Space Agency. “Then I saw the other side of the coin and how decisions are made. The space business really is a team effort, globally.”
“The legal and scientific committees don’t talk to each other but must. We also need to find a way for the commercial sector voices to be heard. And we need to move a lot faster.” -Dr. David Kendall
One of Dr. Kendall’s most significant contributions to space policy was his work on the 21 Long-Term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities guidelines. He was part of the working group and then the chair. It required all nation-state approval and was finally approved in 2019, with all 90 members saying yes.
“Creating 21 new ways of working together was an accomplishment. But there’s more to do on many issues like active debris removal and space traffic management,” Dr. Kendall said.
After serving as chair, Dr. Kendall highlighted the next challenges that the organization needed to consider. “The legal and scientific committees don’t talk to each other but must. We also need to find a way for the commercial sector voices to be heard. And we need to move a lot faster.”
On this episode of Space To Grow, an Astroscale and Marketscale podcast, Astroscale’s Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden dig into the role space plays in our lives, space exploration, and utilization. Many things impact space, including society, low-earth orbit, and lunar exploration.
Blackerby and Weeden talked to Dr. Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, a world-renown space lawyer and the founder of the Space Governance Lab at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She is also an assistant professor at the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University and Sandra Day O Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Aganaba-Jeanty has played a role in many things in space when it comes to governance and space. At ASU, where she holds dual roles, she founded the Space Governance Lab. She has a vision for herself and the future of space, which drives the meaning in her work. On the website at the Future of Innovation in Society, it says, “The Future is for Everyone,” and she believes that all humans play a role in the future of space exploration.
“Everyone should be able to see themselves in the future and how they can impact the future,” Aganab-Jeanty said. “All of us have a role in the future we want, and believe it’s in our control, and we have the ability to control the future.”
The trio dug into what students learn at the Future Innovation center. Aganaba-Jeanty talked about what students can learn and the careers they can go into. Further, they spoke about the role space has in all of our lives, whether we realize it or not.
Space to Grow has an exciting episode featuring Astroscale CEO and Founder Nobu Okada. In this interview, Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden talk to their boss and the man behind bringing awareness and industry to the space sustainability market.
Okada’s career didn’t begin in space, although space was certainly mesmerizing to him early. He traveled to the U.S. to attend Space Camp as a teen, something Weeden did, as well. The love story with space wouldn’t be a major part of his life for years. His career included work in Japan’s Ministry of Finance, as a consultant with McKinsey, and leading IT startups.
Okada said starting Astroscale was a journey to do something different. He was looking for hot topics in space and found sustainability. He attended a global conference in April of 2013.
“No one had solutions or were taking any actions to clean up space.” So, he decided to hold that torch, founding Astroscale a week later. Since then, he’s raised over $191 million.
Raising money for any business is challenging, for space-related startups, maybe even more so because it’s not a quick return. Okada said, “Investors are simple and focused on ROI. The rules are making them feel secure, confident, and happy. We also carefully designed the terms and conditions for each series.”
Okada admits the very first series was a leap of faith for investors. “We had big passion, people, and no technology. At that point, people are investing in you.”
Since then, the company has proved the market is there. Still, it’s a slow process to transform space into a sector where commercialization is a bigger part of the picture. Now, the biggest customer for space-related solutions is government. Okada believes a turning point is coming. “We have to create the future, not wait for it. The commercial role of space sustainability is coming, with awareness raised in the past few years,” he noted.
There are three distinct areas of space exploration—civil, commercial, and defense. It’s rare to find a leader that has contributed to all three. Space to Grow welcomed such a pioneer, Pamela Melroy. Melroy spoke with hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden about her career and the importance of all three aspects cooperating.
Melroy has an impressive career. She was an astronaut, flying three times, and was commander of one of those missions. She held other positions at NASA, the FAA, DARPA, and Lockheed Martin. Now she’s the Director of Space Technology and Policy for Nova Systems, an engineering and technology solutions partner.
Melroy described her career path. “I wanted to be an astronaut and didn’t outgrow it. I had a singular focus on it.
Then it was time to stop flying, and I wanted to keep working on important things and another mountain to climb.” It became mountains as she traversed through all aspects of the space world, learning and adapting along the way.
Her experience taught her that the three areas of space were in deep silos. Each has different agendas, motivations, and priorities. Those don’t always align, even for many fundamental areas. She noted the example of servicing satellites. “NASA knows all about it, and I did it in space. However, there’s a fundamentally different approach to the problem.”
Additionally, there is the complex problem of space debris removal, requiring international collaboration, but it’s not happening. Melroy said, “It’s easy to point the finger at the policy issue as holding us back. Sustainability is a national problem, and cooperation essential. The International Space Station represents this. It requires trust to go forward.”
Space to Grow is back with another episode on the new space economy and sustainability. Hosts Chris Blackery and Charity Weeden of Astroscale invited space policy expert Regina Peldszus to discuss the topic. Peldszus is an accomplished space expert that spent several years in research and now focuses on policy. She’s the Senior Policy Officer at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
Peldszus first answered the question, what is space policy? “It’s the constant dialogue and engagement of actors to negotiate and consider different interests. Space policy involves a shared understanding of assumptions and goals for space.”
The group also discussed who impacts policy, and the answer is there are many different contributors. That’s both positive and challenging because space isn’t governed by one entity.
“Finding the right division of labor in this giant ecosystem means bringing different actors to the table, and they each bring different things to it,” Peldszus added.
Peldszus has concerns about space situational awareness, which is tracking objects in orbit and predicting where they will be. Sustaining the orbital environment for safety and longevity matters. “Anything that creates debris translates to risk. We also don’t have the complete picture of space, which impacts verification and attribution. With different data sources, who has the true picture?”
As for the future of SSA and space policy, Peldszus believes there will be progress toward engagement, transparency, and data sharing.
What do space and archaeology have in common? One is the future, while the other is the study of the past. However, space has a past, too. Hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden spoke with space archaeologist Alice Gorman on this exciting new field.
“It is surprising to have space and archaeology in the same sentence. It came together for me one looking at the night sky noticing the stars but also the space junk put into orbit by humans,” Gorman explained.
Before that night, she was a traditional archaeologist, but she’d also had a fascination with space since childhood. Now her two passions were one.
This revelation came 20 years ago, and she wondered if there were others with the same questions. Soon, she met two others, John Campbell and Beth Laura O’Leary. At first, the subject was thought to be irrelevant but grew to be a field with impact.
“There’s so much activity in space now, and we’re talking more about sustainability and human interaction with the environment,” Gorman said.
With the growth of the sector came the term orbital heritage. Gorman explained its meaning. “There is space debris in orbit from rocket bodies. Some are useless and come with the risk of fragmentation or collision. Some should be removed, but others may have historical value.”
Keeping some pieces in orbit is akin to the archaeological motto “leave something behind for future studies.” Gorman noted that choosing less risky pieces helps future generations learn how humans first made it to space. “It could track the evolution of change of human technology. Retrieving certain rocket pieces also provides the capacity to look at the space environment on materials.”
Hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden of Astroscale welcomed MIT Engineer and Emmy-nominated science TV host Emily Calandrelli to the podcast. Calandrelli is a prominent member of the science communications ecosystem and shared her own story and insights on storytelling in science.
Becoming an engineer wasn’t a lifelong dream for Calandrelli —her drive was purely practical until discovering the technology and policy program in grad school at MIT. “It was looking at science and technology through a policy lens and asking about if it’s ethical, the role of government, and keeping the public safe. I thought these were fascinating questions,” she said.
That experience shifted her career to be more policy and communications driven. She intended to work in DC but got a call from a production company asking her if she wanted to host a TV show about space.
Years later, she’s a strong voice for the scientific community and advocates for people with all different talents to get involved in the space industry. “There are other ways to get involved in space outside of STEM,” she added.
Those types of roles are now trying to spread scientific literary and combat misinformation. Calandrelli focuses her approach on the human side of the story. She explained, “Going to the real human emotions attached to the story matters. You can frame an argument based on what the audience cares about and find simple, creative ways to explain science.”
Science is complex and uncertain, especially the coronavirus. In communicating a difficult and uncertain event, Calandrelli sees that science communication is challenging. “Everyone’s learning how to communicate this uncertainty, but there’s a lot of false information out there. It’s important to learn from the right sources,” she said.
To dive into diversity in space, hosts Chris Blackerby and Charity Weeden of Astroscale welcomed former NASA administrator, retired Marine Corps Major General, and astronaut Charlie Bolden to the show.
In speaking about role diversity in industry, Bolden said, “NASA has a need for every profession imaginable.”
With a mix of people that have different opinions and viewpoints, diversity of ideas can blossom. “It behooves you to hear as many disparate voices as you can. They may see something you don’t see, leading to a better idea. It’s much better than working only with those that think, act, and look like you,” Bolden shared.
He believes that NASA has become good at accepting diversity of thought, something learned through international relationships. Listening to their partners and making room for their concepts translates to improvements and achievements.
However, Bolden does believe that NASA and all organizations can do better in race and gender diversity. He’s reminded of this pursuit toward inclusion by words from the constitution’s preamble, “in order to become a more perfect union.” “It admits we aren’t perfect. To work toward that, we need to establish equity practices to afford equal opportunities to everyone,” he added.
Another unique area of space diversity is bringing the private sector into the conversation. “Letting industry take a leading role in planning and design and giving them a seat at the table is important. We told the private sector what we needed. They came back to us with a plan and paid them to do it,” Bolden noted.
With so many different versions of diversity, there’s no doubt the future of space sustainability will need it.
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
