Director of Space Application Programs Krystal Azelton hosted a panel titled “The Connection between Sustainability on Earth and Sustainability in Space” at the Indo-Pacific Space & Earth Conference, an event focused on delving into all the technologies that can be applied both on Earth and in space. Panelists included Aude Vignelles, Chief Technology Officer at the Australian Space Agency, Alan Brunstrom, ESA Applications Ambassador, Terry Van Haren, Managing Director at Leolabs, and Zandria Farrell, National Manager for Space at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The panel looked at how the rapid rise in the utilization of satellites for scientific, commercial, and societal benefits has been enabled and supported by a space environment that remains stable and accessible to all. They also discussed that the long-term sustainability of that environment faces challenges – both natural and human-induced – that pose a risk to the continued stability of operations. Discussion focused on threats to several of these risks ranging from orbital debris to space weather as well as the link to sustainability on Earth in areas like agriculture, oceans, and global infrastructure.

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