Allow activities in space only after they assess their effect on the space environment and present a cleanup plan
Steps to make it happen
- People who plan a satellite or a Moon mission study its effects on the surroundings before launch.
- They show with numbers the risk of hitting other satellites and the chance of adding more space junk.
- They hand in a plan and set aside money for how to clear away satellites and machines when they are done.
- They also check the effects on the brightness of the night sky, on star observation, and on important places on the Moon.
- Countries agree on the same yardstick so that every country can check these effects in the same way.
- The results are made public so that anyone can see them and share an opinion.
- After launch, officials keep checking that the cleanup was done as planned.
- Using space without dirtying it and handing it on to the next people becomes normal.
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The proposal in detail
This proposal treats the orbits around Earth and bodies such as the Moon as a shared environment that wears out with use, and it makes an assessment of effects before any activity there a condition of permission. It covers activities that send things into space or alter things in space: satellites, communication networks made of huge numbers of satellites, landers on the Moon or asteroids, future resource mining, and experiments that destroy objects on purpose. International treaties on space hold that a country is responsible even for private activity, so each country's licensing office carries out the review, and the yardstick is set jointly in international forums. The items assessed include the chance of colliding with other objects, a plan and deadline for taking a craft out of orbit or moving it to a safe place after operations end, money set aside in case of failure (insurance or deposits), the effect of brightness seen from the ground on astronomy, radio crowding, the effect on places of historic value such as the surface of a body or past landing sites, and contamination that would get in the way of research looking for traces of life. The review considers not only a single plan but also how crowded things are overall, together with the objects already in space. As a rule the results are made public, and researchers and citizens of other countries can give their opinions. Satellites tied to national security may keep details hidden, but the risk of collision and the cleanup plan must always be shown. Activities with small effects, such as small satellites built by students, get a simple procedure.
BenefitsIt can prevent damage in space that cannot be undone
Once space junk has built up, it is extremely hard to collect, and it stays for decades or centuries. By studying effects before an activity and requiring a cleanup plan and money set aside, we can make pollution less likely to arise in the first place, instead of scrambling after a problem appears. With a shared yardstick, it becomes harder to use a lenient country as a loophole, and competition becomes fair, so companies that clean up responsibly do not lose out. When results are public, astronomers and countries that are about to enter space can learn about the effects on themselves in advance and have a chance to speak up. Satellites also support the lives of people who have nothing to do with space, through weather forecasts, communications, positioning, and disaster monitoring. Keeping orbits safe also means handing those benefits on to future generations without a break. For the Moon and other bodies, too, it offers a way to protect historic places and scientifically valuable environments before development advances.
DrawbacksIt puts a heavy burden on new countries and companies
What opponents weigh most heavily is that this system could shut out new participants in space. Assessing effects and putting up deposits cost money and time. Rich large companies and advanced countries can cope, but for small start-ups and countries just beginning space development it is a big wall. Moreover, most of the easy-to-use orbits are already held by the countries and companies that came first, and critics say that imposing strict rules on latecomers locks in the advantage of those who arrived earlier. Much about the effects on the space environment is still unknown compared with the ground, so the assessment methods themselves are uncertain, and reviews may become arbitrary or procedures may drag on. Countries concerned with security dislike disclosing information and may not join in making the shared yardstick, and in that case only the countries that follow the rules would carry the burden. Standards that are too strict could even push activity toward countries with looser oversight. There is also concern that reviews cannot keep up with the speed of technological progress and would cut off the buds of new challenges.
Learn the background
For a long time, space was a special place used by only a few countries that spent huge sums. But launch costs have dropped sharply, and private companies, universities, and many countries have joined in, so the number of satellites circling Earth is growing fast. Dead satellites, rocket fragments, and pieces of broken machines fly around at high speed, and when they collide they create even more fragments. Experts point out that once crowding passes a certain limit, fragments could set off a chain in which fragments create more fragments, leaving certain orbits unusable for a long time. Plans to use resources on the Moon have also started moving, and the question of how far the surface of a celestial body may be changed has become real. Meanwhile, the basic rules of space were made in an era with few participants, and responsibility for cleanup and the treatment of space as an environment are not clearly settled. Each country's licensing standards also differ, so it is possible to pick a lenient country to launch from. The idea of studying effects in advance and publishing them, which has become normal for development on the ground, should now be extended to space.
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This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-15d) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes