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Astro‐Environmentalism: Towards a Polycentric Governance of Space Debris

The Earth’s orbital space is increasingly threatened by debris. It is frequently described as a common-pool resource vulnerable to a ‘tragedy of the commons’ scenario. Scholars have suggested ambitious policy proposals to tackle the tragedy of space debris and assure the sustainability of the Earth’s orbits. Their proposals can be classified into three categories: hierarchical regulations, economic incentives and property rights. All three categories require some form of central coordination. However, there might be an alternative approach to the problem and other potential solutions. Elinor Ostrom suggested that decentralized, polycentric systems are appropriate for governing common-pool resources. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a polycentric form of governance can encourage a more sustainable use of the Earth’s orbits. 1. Sustainability in outer space Space is a polluted environment. Recent estimates suggest that there are around 34,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm orbiting around the Earth (European Space Agency, 2020). Human activity in space is largely responsible for orbital debris, which can consist of defunct satellites, fragments from the break-up of satellites, separated stages of launch vehicles, discarded propellant tanks, tools dropped by astronauts or even tiny flecks of paint. Depending on its altitude, space debris has different degrees of persistence: from a few days, in the case of debris that is less than 200 km above the Earth’s surface, to almost indefinitely, if the debris is approaching Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) altitudes (36,000 km above the Earth’s Equator). Peak debris density in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) occurs at 885 km, where orbital debris persistence is assessed in centuries (Anz-Meador et al., 2018). The pollution of the Earth’s orbital space by debris is a problem of major importance. Debris often delays spacecraft launches, causes radio frequency interference, spoils telescope observations, damages space structures and requires avoidance manoeuvres. Even a tiny fleck of paint can be highly destructive when travelling at a velocity of 25,000 km/hour. The Space Shuttle was struck with a microparticle of debris in 1983, which cracked its windscreen. In 1996, part of an old rocket hit and damaged a French satellite in operation. In 2009, a United States Iridium commercial satellite was destroyed in collision with a defunct Russian satellite. Damage of this sort can have severe consequences, as societies increasingly rely on satellites for weather forecasting, traffic control, geolocation and navigation, broadcasting, communication, Internet, etc. What makes the problem a major concern is the fact that space debris pollution has a self-generating character: when a piece of space debris collides with another space object, they explode, creating additional debris, thus increasing the likelihood of future collisions. The ‘Kessler Syndrome’ refers to a possible chain reaction of collisions that create an exponential amount of new debris (Kessler and Cour-Palais, 1978). A self-propagating cascade of collisions of this type would restrict outer space activities and could ultimately block humankind’s access to space. Although the probability of such an event is still unknown, it will only increase with the unsustainable use of space. A sustainable use of the Earth’s orbital space requires three types of action: (1) mitigation efforts to reduce the creation of new debris; (2) monitoring activities to track even the smallest debris; and (3) remediation initiatives to remove existing debris (Baiocchi and Welser, 2010). Engineers are inventing various new devices to address the technical aspects of these actions. However, the greatest challenge remains the problem of collective action: how can actors be encouraged to invest money and effort when the benefits and risks are shared by all. This paper reviews the various policy proposals to address this problem of collective action. The next section presents the canonical description of the pollution of the Earth’s orbital space as a tragedy of the commons. The following section discusses three types of policy solutions, which are commonly suggested. They rely on centralized coordination, which is based on regulation, incentive and property rights, respectively. The last section introduces a less intuitive, but more feasible (and perhaps even more effective) approach, based on polycentric governance. 2. The tragedy of space debris The Earth’s orbital space is commonly referred to as a common-pool resource (Salter, 2015; Taylor, 2011; Tepper, 2019). Goods vary along two dimensions: (1) excludability, that is, Global Policy (2021) doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12950 © 2021 Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Global Policy