Promoting Sustainability Value in Earth's Orbit

This paper aims to implement an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability and protection of the orbital environment in relation to the current commercial activities. It argues that orbital and planetary sustainability, and the corresponding evolution of domestic, international, and regional regulatory instruments, need to take place in conjunction with sustainability of the Earth System, where the term “Earth system" refers to Earth's interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. The paper focuses on interaction of complex systems to engage with important challenges that lie at the intersection of these domains. The starting point is the international outer space law, as an adaptive anthropogenic system, and its broader contextualisation in relation to Earth System and non-anthropogenic agencies. The paper then situates the role of private corporations and argues for the promotion of Sustainability Values and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in outer space and the Earth System. An example of such an initiative, the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR), proposed by an interdisciplinary seeks to foster voluntary action by satellite operators to reduce the risk of space debris, on-orbit collisions, and unsustainable space operations. The paper argues for a transdisciplinary, plural, and coordinated approaches to address the environmental impact of anthropogenic activities in the outer space-Earth System interactions.