Part 3 of the series "Space and Resilience in the 21st Century"

15th of November 2022 | 06:00 - 07:30 pm | Universitätsforum Bonn, Heussallee 18-24 

Space is infinite, but the coveted space in low-Earth orbit is limited. The space-based infrastructure around our planet performs tasks that are indispensable for the functioning of ultra-modern industrial societies. This applies not only to the faultless functioning of energy supply, ATMs, navigation or stock exchange trading. Without the data obtained via satellites, it would also be much more difficult to record the global course and regional consequences of climate change. Ensuring the reliable and sustainable functioning of this space-based infrastructure is thus vital for the survival of human civilization in many respects.

Given its enormous increase in importance, many armed forces around the world have also placed a much greater focus on space in recent years. While Germany's strategic rivals already have space armaments for active satellite warfare, the Federal Republic is pursuing exclusively peaceful goals alongside its partners: Bringing justice to a lawless space, guaranteeing free access for all, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of human spaceflight.

Due to the thousands and thousands of hazardous debris already orbiting the Earth at high speed and threatening low-Earth orbit infrastructure, as well as the enormous increase in private and governmental actors in space, coordinated international action is also urgently needed. This is all the more so because in the event of a military conflict in space, not only is there the threat of failure and loss of essential infrastructure there, but also the subsequent placement of new systems can quickly become impossible due to dangerous littering with new debris caused by war, radically challenging the resilience of modern societies. Sustainability and security are thus intertwined in the space domain in a very special way, as in hardly any other space.

The event will be held in German.

Welcoming remarks

Dr. Enrico Fels
Geschäftsführer des Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn

Discussants

Sabine von der Recke
Vorstandsmitglied, OHB System AG

Dr. Eva-Maria Heinke
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum (DLR)

Juliane Süss
Forschungsanalystin und Leiterin Weltraumsicherheit, Royal United Service Institute (RUSI)

Andrea Rotter
Leiterin des Bereichs Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung

Chair

Arne Sönnichsen
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Koordinator des Forschungsnetzwerks SichTRaum