UK has ‘huge opportunity' to be space watchdog, says former science minister
George Freeman, the MP for Mid Norfolk who was minister for science, research, technology and innovation under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, said the need for standards was pressing.
'The truth is, with little or no regulation space is in danger of becoming a free-for-all wild west of commercial and military satellites being launched in the new space race,' he said.
'There are now 40 tonnes and a million pieces of debris. Ninety-eight per cent of satellites are uninsured. As the global commercial space sector takes off and more and more businesses are reliant on satellites, space is not unlike the early days of the automobile. But who wants to drive down a highway where 90% of vehicles are unmanned, have no insurance and you have to navigate around debris and broken down vehicles?'
Freeman said as space minister he had focused on UK leadership in space regulation, insurance and finance; convening the industry partnership with the UK space sector and Lloyds of London to create the Earth∞Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI), which aims to set global standards for the sector, and securing the backing of Canada, Japan and Switzerland through the global summit at the Royal Society.
'The idea of my space debris regulation and the creation of the Earth Space Sustainability Initiative was very simple,' he said. 'If you're compliant with the UK [standards] – if your satellite is retrievable, if it's rechargeable, if it's recyclable – you'll get quicker licensing, cheaper insurance and access to ESG [environmental, social and governance] finance.'
Freeman added that by smart regulation, markets can be created for innovative UK companies, noting the satellite retrieval company Astroscale has a base in the UK. A shift from launching ever more satellites to increasing the spectrum bandwidth on satellite constellations, could also produce opportunities.
'It just isn't sustainable to continue the race for constellation coverage on the basis of the volume of satellites,' he said, arguing for a system where contractors carry ' multiple data streams in safely encrypted spectrum bandwidth for multiple operators'.
While Freeman noted the UK does not have a fully integrated space industrial sector, he said it does have world-class science and technology and innovation. 'We are a Formula One pit lane of smart satellite manufacturing, telemetry, SatComms services and EO [Earth observation] applications,' he said.
But it isn't only in the field of satellite technology where regulation will be important. From crewed missions to Mars to the prospect of lunar mining and even creating data centres on the moon, the opportunities space offers are myriad.
Regulations around space debris, Freeman said, could act as a gateway to rules in other areas.
'It can gradually evolve,' the MP explained. 'You could imagine, say, on space traffic control, that you wouldn't get permission to launch from aviation authorities unless you've got a licence to operate. Licence to operate says you must be compliant with basic standards.
'You can't be littering space with metal. You can't be doing unregulated and dangerous nuclear, biological or chemical experiments on the surface of the moon. You can't be ripping out minerals, unless you've got an abstraction licence. So once you start to create a framework, you intermesh the permissions and stop rogue actors.'
Freeman added the UK is well placed to lead on such matters. 'Space needs a global regulatory alliance led by and headquartered in a trusted nation. You need a country that's got a long and distinguished history as a trusted partner, a long, 300-year role as a regulator of choice, that believes in and is respected internationally for its legal system and is connected to financial market and international courts and jurisdiction,' he said.
'This is a huge opportunity for the UK. We should seize it.'
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It takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the Sun The planet has a diameter of 4,212 miles, and has an average distance from Earth of 140 million miles Martian temperatures can vary wildly, reaching as high as 70F/20C or as low as -225F/-153C She told The Sun: 'They would very much more likely be tiny little aliens. 'But if there were any intelligent ones, that would be the Air Force's problem, not NASA's, at least for the US. 'But again, we don't know what we're preparing for.' Rummel continued to work for NASA as a senior scientist at the Astrobiology Program after leaving his PPO role before retiring. He added: 'If somebody were to come in and land on the Earth, it's unlikely that they're going to cause a problem in my opinion. 'But I wouldn't trust my opinion on this because I don't have data. 'I believe that there's life out there but it wouldn't consider itself alien. Because they're out there and we're the aliens if we go out there. 'They're not the aliens themselves. I hope intelligent alien life is out there, and I certainly think it could be. We have a chance of seeing them in our lifetime. 'It changes all the time, but the search for extra terrestrial intelligence or technology has the potential to reveal if there's something else going on in the galaxy that's not us. 'At one point in time, I was the SETI program person at NASA headquarters. "And some very smart people are dedicated to seeing what's out there.' 5 NASA says on its website it hopes to send humans to Mars as early as the 2030s to explore signs of alien life. It was planning to return Mars samples before then as part of its Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. But that has been scrapped by Donald Trump's cuts, and NASA instead says it anticipates returning samples through lower-cost options. China remains on course with its own plans to return Mars samples through its Tianwen-3 Mars mission, set for launch in 2028 and bringing samples back by 2031. Rummel says he agrees with Catharine that NASA's current plans to bring samples back to Earth are not safe. But he says he'll be keeping an eager eye on the Chinese. He said: 'Mars sample return by robotic space vehicles is not currently funded by the US, so Catharine is right. 'It will be interesting to see the details of whatever the Chinese do.' He added: 'The bottom line is that we're looking for life on Mars and if we think there's a credible possibility of finding life on Mars, then it would be nice to know something about whether or not that life form was benign or whether or not it somehow might affect us.' 'You don't want it to go badly.' The Sun has approached NASA for a response to Rummel's comments. On questions surrounding the safety of samples returned to Mars, NASA previously said: "It is anticipated that future missions to Mars will return samples for study on Earth. "NASA will never compromise on safety." How long does it take to get to Mars? It's not that short of a trip... There's an immense distance between Earth and Mars, which means any trip to the red planet will take a very long time It's also made more complicated by the fact that the distance is constantly changing as the two planets rotate around the sun The closest that the Earth and Mars would ever be is a distance of 33.9million miles – that's 9,800 times the distance between London and New York That's really rare though: the more useful distance is the average, which is 140million miles Scientists on Earth have already launched a whole bunch of spacecraft to (or near) Mars, so we have a rough idea of how long it takes with current technology Historically, the trip has taken anywhere from 128 to 333 days – admittedly a huge length of time for humans to be on board a cramped spacecraft.
