It has been an extraordinary few months for ESSI, and we would like to update you on our progress.
Welcome to the first of our regular Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI) bulletins. It has been an extraordinary few months for ESSI, and we would like to update you on our progress.
ESSI officially launched on 28 June 2023 at the Royal Society, London, where the Global Leaders on Space Sustainability Symposium took place. During the day, it was inspiring to hear so many positive commitments to space sustainability from so many companies and organisations involved in space. We look forward to continuing this work with all of you in the coming months. Read more about our launch here.
A centrepiece of the ESSI launch was the presentation of the Memorandum of Principles for Space Sustainability. Signed by more than 120 organisations and individuals, it outlines the importance of space to society as a whole, and splits the concept of space sustainability into nine strands that the Space Sustainability Principles will cover. Read the text of the Memorandum here.
In designing the Memorandum, ESSI hoped for something in the region of 40 signatures. To have exceeded this almost three fold is an unprecedented boost. Indeed, the overwhelmingly positive reception to the Memorandum inspired us to open a second round of signatures, for those who missed the first round. That stage has now just closed with our capstone signature coming from Professor Rangi Mātāmua, on his recent visit to London, UK.
Professor Mātāmua is a Māori astronomer at Massey University, New Zealand. He is the chief advisor to the New Zealand Government on the public holiday of Matariki, the Māori new year. In 2019, he won the Prime Minister’s Science Communications prize, and this year he has been named as New Zealander of the Year. It is our pleasure to welcome him to the august ranks of our other signatories.
We will be publishing the full list of signatories on 31 July, so be sure to check our news section on Monday for the full story. Those of you who have already signed the Memorandum, please feel free to use Monday's story on your own website, social media and other communications channels should you wish. Just remember to backlink to us at www.essi.org – with your help we can continue building this community dedicated to space sustainability.
With the work on the Memorandum coming to a close, the ESSI team is now beginning to draft the Space Sustainability Principles (SSPs). An immediate decision is that the Dark and Quiet Skies strand should be separated into two. So, from now on there will be Dark Skies and Quiet Skies principles, bringing the total to ten.The industry and academic leads for the work on the principles will shortly be appointed and then a wider industrial consultation will take place in mid-September. We are also in advanced negotiations with the British Standards Institute (BSI) who will help turn these principles into industrial standards.
Work on the ESSI Database of existing space sustainability standards continues apace as well. In the run up to the launch, ESSI achieved a world-first by identifying all current space sustainability standards and guidelines. Numbering well over one thousand documents, work is continuing to prepare this material for incorporation into a database of space sustainability standards.
Adding even more value to the database is that in due course it will include all of the related finance and insurance principles and metrics, and legal and regulatory standards as well. This will truly make it a one-stop-shop for space companies and organisations wishing to stay fully up to date.We have identified our database developer and are now in ongoing discussions about the functionality of the database, which will result in a full technical specification, ready for building and implementing.
There’s a lot happening and we thank you all for being with us on this path. Please send this newsletter to anyone you think would benefit from it.
See you in the next Bulletin. By working together we can enhance and develop the benefits of space for all life and future generations.
