As space rapidly becomes critical infrastructure, can we expand towards the stars without losing sight of our responsibilities?
Space is no longer something that happens somewhere beyond us. Satellites underpin navigation, communications, weather forecasting, climate monitoring, emergency response and countless everyday systems. As the space sector rapidly expands, so too does its environmental, social and governance footprint.
But what does sustainability actually mean when an entire sector is scaling at speed?
For this Earth Conversation, Alan Raw, author of To Sustainability and Beyond: A Practical Guide to Environmental Responsibility in the Space Sector, invites us to look beyond the familiar debate about orbital debris and ask a bigger question: what should responsible growth of the space sector actually look like?
Alan draws on his experience from within the space sector and on the research behind his book to explore the environmental impacts that sit across the whole space system, from materials, manufacturing and testing to launch, orbital operations, ground infrastructure, data centres and end-of-life.
But this is not a lecture about how to make the space industry more sustainable, nor an argument for or against space exploration. It is an Earth Conversation and action research session.
Together, we will explore what would need to be true for the rapid expansion of space activity to be considered genuinely responsible. What should we protect? What needs to change? Which assumptions should we challenge? What don’t we yet know? And what could we do differently now?
Alan’s starting point is simple: Space has become infrastructure. Responsibility must scale with it.
The conversation will draw on ideas from To Sustainability and Beyond, but participants do not need to have read the book.
About Alan Raw
Alan Raw is a published author, ASP Director, creative sustainability practitioner and environmental storyteller.
He has worked across sustainability, space technology, Earth observation and ESG, and is a co-founding Fellow of the RSA Space Network and a mentor for the Ascend to Space Mission.
His book, To Sustainability and Beyond, is a practical examination of environmental responsibility across the full space system. Rather than treating sustainability as a narrow question of orbital debris or compliance, it explores life-cycle impacts, materials, energy, launch, data infrastructure, governance, regulation, measurement and organisational behaviour.
Alan has since stepped away from operational roles in the space sector. He continues to engage selectively with space-related work, but his focus is on creative practice, environmental storytelling and the wider question of how humans can become more responsible participants in the systems we create.
Alan is an honorary doctor of the University of Hull for Sustainability & Creative Practice, and he is currently studying his MA in Creative Practice with Plymouth Marjon University. His books are published by Grokkist Press.
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The conversation
This session will explore questions including:
- What changes when space moves from exceptional exploration to continuous infrastructure?
- Where does the environmental impact of a space mission actually occur?
- Are we measuring the things that matter, or simply the things that are easiest to measure?
- What happens when environmental consequences sit outside an organisation’s boundaries?
- Can sustainability keep pace with rapid technological and commercial expansion?
- Is “sustainable growth” enough, or do we also need to discuss limits, restraint and sufficiency?
- Who is responsible when no single organisation or nation controls the whole system?
- What would responsible ambition in the space sector actually look like?
The action research question
The central question for the session will be:
If the space sector continues to expand rapidly, what would have to be true for that expansion to be genuinely responsible?
Participants will work together to identify:
- One thing we should protect
- One thing we need to change
- One assumption we need to challenge
- One action that could begin now
- One thing we don’t yet know
The aim is not to produce a definitive answer, but to generate useful questions, shared insight and awareness.
The wider thought
Alan’s book argues that space activity now functions as infrastructure rather than exception. That shift changes the sustainability question. Modern space systems are continuous and increasingly commercial, with impacts accumulating through repeated manufacture, testing, launch, operation, replacement and disposal. Small decisions can become significant when they are repeated at scale.
The environmental footprint also extends far beyond orbit. Manufacturing, testing, launch, ground infrastructure, data processing and storage all form part of the wider system.
The book’s approach is deliberately practical. It does not argue against space activity or commercial growth. Instead, it asks what responsibility looks like when decisions have long-term consequences in shared environments.
The Sagan connection
A key idea from the book is Carl Sagan’s reminder to: “Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Alan’s response is: Ad astra responsibiliter. A playful reworking of Ad astra, towards the stars, adding the idea of responsibility.
It provides a simple philosophical thread through the conversation:
We can look towards the stars without forgetting the Earth beneath our feet.
