Emissary - environmental management initiative for space sustainability through adaptive regulatory policy

Perks, Megan E., Lewis, Hugh G. and Barry, Jennifer (2025) Emissary - environmental management initiative for space sustainability through adaptive regulatory policy. 9th European Conference on Space Debris, World Conference Center, Bonn, Germany. 01 - 04 Apr 2025. 15 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Over the past decade, the use of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has increased rapidly. With this increase in use comes an increase in the associated impacts. To manage these impacts, tools such as models and metrics are needed to help us understand the broad and varied impacts of space activities on diverse perspectives of space sustainability. This work presents a description and example of the systems dynamics model EMISSARY, which encompasses lessons from Earth-based applications of threshold-based concepts for protected resource management. These lessons include a rejection of traditional, singular carrying capacity metrics in favour of multiple qualitative and quantitative metrics that track acceptable conditions in the complex system. By this interpretation, focus shifts from 'quantifying use' to 'quantifying the impacts of use' in a way that acknowledges the many interconnections and trade-offs that exist between different perspectives of space sustainability.

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EMISSARY 9ECSD PERKS LEWIS BARRY - Author's Original

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