The new Space Age

With 70 nations, space-mad billionaires and eager private companies all vying for a stake - but no laws or rules -space today is verging on a free-for-all.

- Shaoni Bhattacharya

Last summer, lan Christensen was staring up at the night sky above a US National Park and International Dark Sky area. He and his companions were listening to a ranger talk about the wonders of the night sky when they were confronted with an unexpected sight: a train of dots crossing the Milky Way.

"For me it was a crystallisation," he told delegates at the Abu Dhabi Space Debate. "Here's a system with benefits... but also a direct and discernible impact on how we as a species engage with the environment."

Christensen who is the director of private sector programmes at the Secure World Foundation, an organisation that aims to promote space sustainability - was one of many speakers at the two-day meeting in December 2022, organised by the United Arab Emirates. It was the first-ever international meeting solely dedicated to addressing new space challenges on a global scale. While space has been on the agenda at major world meetings before, including the COP climate meetings, it has always been as an adjunct, a side issue among many others.

Now with rising numbers of new players in space, out-of-date rules and tensions rising both on Earth and in space, the Space Debate aimed to provide a forum to cooperatively discuss the future of space. 

Safety and the sustainability of space were high on the agenda. Who owns space? Who makes the laws? Who will pay for the clean-up of space debris? These were some of the questions running through the debate.

"We have moved from the bi-polar world of the Cold War and its Space Race to a multilateral world where some 70 nations are space-capable; where a fast-growing private sector is taking an increasing role and global tensions have threatened some of the most cherished aspects of our exploration of space," said Her Excellency Sarah Al Amiri, chair of the UAE Space Agency in her opening remarks.