Space Economy and Sustainability

Catalog description

This course prepares the student for state-of-the-art knowledge on the space economy and sustainability. Outer space affairs are highly interdisciplinary, and in need of cross-cutting competencies. Space and non space technologies and related skills are on the rise, as it is the integration between new frontier technologies such as AI, robotics, biotechnologies, etc and the three main space technologies, namely Earth Observation, geolocation and satcoms. On the side of sustainability, we will look at sustainability in space and sustainability on earth applying space research, technologies and applications. Space can benefit agriculture, public health, education, disaster management, smart cities, food and water security, and/or climate variables monitoring. The Space economy is expected to become a trillion dollar economy by 2040 (report from Bank of America), and “made in space” may exist soon. The democratization of space implies an increasing access to space and brings with it the need to maintain the safety, security and sustainability of outer space activities in the long term, in the framework of a space traffic coordination mechanism and a stable global governance in the field, to ensure a commercial safe space environment. Sustainability, green economy and space economy are therefore strictly interconnected and represent one of the pillars to ensure a reliable future for humanity. During the final lectures we will discuss a number of outstanding issues, and the students will present and discuss their term paper on a current topic in the field of space economy and sustainability.