Space Trash Signs: The new face of star-gazing

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see...." Many will recognise the opening lines of rock band Queen's haunting ballad Bohemian Rhapsody, released nearly 50 years ago, in 1975. That half-century has seen us raise our faces to the sky in age-old contemplation of wonder. It has also seen technology rocketing into new dimensions at a pace captured by this campaign proposing entire new constellations based not on the mysteries of the firmament, but on the sombre reality of human debris. The initiative aims to increase public awareness of space pollution ahead of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) session in June 2024,and launched with the support of aerospace companies and space agencies, scientists and universities, as well as activists, museums and media from around the world. Each of the 'trash signs' generated represents a different impact of space pollution. For example, “The Broken Compass” signifies the loss of navigation services such as GPS, that would affect 6.5 billion people and make modern aviation impossible. “The Great 404”, named after the ‘page not found’ error in the web browser, signifies limited internet, impacting 43 million people who rely on satellite internet, potentially isolating whole communities. “The Lost Harvest” stands for the loss of environmental data that can only be collected through satellites, affecting 509.6 million square kilometers of land and potentially causing famine and environmental disasters. Space monitoring company Privateer collects over 800 million data points on objects in the Earth’s orbit every day. This includes the position, speed, country of origin, parent object, size, shape, and even the estimate removal. AI was then used to find visual patterns of debris over areas linked to the consequences. For example: “The Lost Harvest” was located over the Amazon rainforest, the world’s most biodiverse region. “The Great 404” over Burundi, Central Africa, the country with the lowest number of internet users. “The Broken Compass” over the infamous Bermuda Triangle in the North Atlantic. Space Trash Signs are then brought to life for the whole world to experience immersively in over 700 planetariums worldwide through partnerships. The signs are also integrated into popular AR star-gazing apps. Furthermore, a digital campaign confronts people with the consequences of space pollution through staged website error pages, failed parcel tracking or missing forecasts. All leading to the Space Trash Signs website, where all signs can be explored along with more data, background information and ways to act, such as signing the Zero Debris Charter facilitated by the European Space Agency and co-developed with more than forty space actors around the world. Space Trash Signs is a platform open for any private or public organization as well as individuals who want to join the fight against space pollution. Experts from European Space Agency have recognized the important contribution of Space Trash Signs to raise awareness on the issue of space debris. Other prominent supporters include the German scientific aerospace association WARR, Japanese founded, global debris-removal innovator Astroscale, several space-debris related startups such as OKAPI:Orbits from Germany, Dark Space from France and Digantara from India, global astronomical society Astronomers Without Borders, as well as the world’s biggest science museum Deutsches Museum in Munich. “There are some internationally agreed upon guidelines on debris clean-up and prevention. But none of these mechanisms has enforceability,” warns Dr. Moriba Jah, Chief Scientist at Privateer. “If we don’t change our behavior, space will become unusable.” Yikes. We gaze upwards with a sense of wonder, yes - but what is the nature of that wonder these days?

Keywords: Space Trash Signs, Space debris, human debris in outer Space, Space pollution, Space monitoring, UN COPUOS 2024, Privateer, Moby Digg, Serviceplan Innovation