Description:
Europe’s society relies on the resilient availability and functioning of the Earth observation infrastructure in space, which has become so fundamental for crisis monitoring and prevention. This infrastructure, however, is at risk due to space events, of human-made and natural origin. A total of 36,000 objects larger than the size of a tennis ball are orbiting Earth, of which only 13% are actively controlled. Smaller objects are even more numerous. At average impact velocities of 40,000km/h, these non-controlled objects pose a constant threat to our space objects. Space Weather events, a natural phenomenon influencing the radiation and geomagnetic environment around Earth produce harm not for assets in space, and significant economic losses (damages, outages, etc…).
To protect the safety of spaceflight, several initiatives have been formed in Europe by ESA, the EC and the private sector. The objectives of this session are to inform about these initiatives, identify emerging needs that require urgent attention and explore ways for more intense collaboration in Europe.
Agenda Points:
• Status of space sustainability actions and projects in Europe
• Space Weather risks and user needs
• Collaboration on Space Sustainability in Europ

Speakers:
Academic/Policy representative – Thomas Schildknecht (AIUB( Jean-Jacques Tortora (ESPI)
EC actions - Christoph Kautz (EC DEFIS)
Mark Gibbs (Metoffice)
DG EUMETAST Phi Evans (EUMETSAT)
Sustainability services - Luc Picquet (Clearspace) / Nobu Okada (Astroscale)
Infrastructure - TBD Thales (FR) (Shahrzad Larger) / TBD Airbus (Axel Wagner) / TBD DIGOS
ESA programmatics – Holger Krag (ESA)

•Open Discussion