AUKUS's ‘Public Space Awareness’ opportunity
Imagine “Google Earth for space" powered by AUKUS’s new DARC initiative. Making space awareness public would be a powerful step toward scalable space governance.
"It's going to be like an interstate highway in a rush hour in a snowstorm with everyone driving much too fast."
This is how Harvard astrophysicist Johnathan McDowell described the coming space traffic chaos to Space.com. "Except that there are multiple interstate highways crossing each other with no stoplights,” he added.1
Let’s be real: Today’s space governance is not equipped for the expected increase in satellites, debris, and commercial and geopolitical players, much less the hyper-accelerated space gold rush we at the Boyd Institute envision.
A new coined term — ‘Public Space Awareness’
As space diplomacy moves at what feels like a snail’s pace, there is something else we can do to lay the groundwork for better space governance: We can make space awareness public.
Picture a “Google Earth for Space”-like feed with an interface that anyone in the world with an Internet connection can access. Envision an API allowing developers to build tools for managing satellite traffic, documenting debris, or doing astronomical research. I am calling this “Public Space Awareness.”
AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between the US, UK, and Australia, is well-positioned to make Public Space Awareness a reality. It would be smart to orient in this direction.
The DARC opportunity
Earlier this month, the US, UK, and Australia announced that they would set up a network of three ground-based radars in each nation by 2030 as part of AUKUS’s advanced capability development. The program is called DARC, short for Deep Space Advanced Capability. The first DARC radar site will be constructed in Exmouth, Western Australia and should be operational in three years.
DARC’s main focus will be tracking satellites, debris, and other objects in this vast region of space known as geosynchronous orbit. This is a huge area encompassing the space surrounding Earth up to 37,000-some kilometers in altitude. Here’s how the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, Dr. John Plumb, described it:
The Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability will leverage the geography of the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom to further enhance our collective space domain awareness: the ability to track, identify and characterize space objects. Space domain awareness is foundational to responsible space operations, and it is essential for responding to activity in space, whether that activity is routine or hostile.2
DARC will offer higher sensitivity, better accuracy, and more agile tracking than other space awareness efforts. While it may be tempting for AUKUS to keep DARC’s space intelligence close to the vest as a military capability, there may be more to gain for AUKUS, and indeed the world, by making it publicly available through Public Space Awareness.
Instead of viewing DARC through the lens of conventional military prowess, AUKUS could look at it as an incredible opportunity for information statecraft. Just imagine the power and possibility of an AUKUS-controlled feed for global Public Space Awareness.
In other words, instead of viewing DARC through the lens of conventional military prowess, AUKUS could look at it as an incredible opportunity for information statecraft. Just imagine the power and possibility of an AUKUS-controlled feed for global Public Space Awareness.
Benefits of shared surveillance of the space commons
With space traffic growing exponentially, a shared API and information resource would lay the foundation for a global system for space traffic management, putting AUKUS at the center of this. By powering Public Space Awareness, AUKUS would not only have the ability track satellites and other objects in space, it could control the infrastructure that coordinates that activity in the first place.
Public Space Awareness would also create accountability and deterrence for space debris and other bad actions. When Russia launched an anti-satellite missile test in November 2021, there wasn’t much awareness around the massive debris that was created. The public had to read about it secondhand and rely on experts. Plus, there were no major enforcement mechanisms other than finger wagging. Russia basically got away with it.
But with Public Space Awareness and a “Google Earth for Space,” the public could track events like this. They could see the massive debris creation with their own eyes, so to speak. NGOs and environmental lawyers could capture evidence. The global court of public opinion would shift more aggressively against the perpetrator, which creates its own kind of enforcement and deterrence.
In the absence of stronger enforcement mechanisms of the Outer Space Treaty, providing shared surveillance of the commons is a way to positively shift behaviors. It is a vehicle for what Nobel Prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom refers to as polycentric governance.3 This is the idea of collectively governing a ‘commons’ like geosynchronous space through multiple decentralized actors. Thus, Public Space Awareness could contribute to overall space governance and help enhance regulatory compliance, and AUKUS could be at the center of this.
It is impossible to imagine all of the benefits of AUKUS-powered Public Space Awareness, but one can imagine a few. For example, Public Space Awareness could be used for astronomical research, helping people discover new wonders in space. It could be used for mining exploration to find new sources of strategic resources. It could be used for environmental monitoring too. Imagine the educational benefits of Public Space Awareness — the virtual field trips students could take to different parts of space and the imagination this would inspire.
Lessons from Google Earth
Before Google Earth publicly launched in June 2005, it would have been difficult to imagine how much impact it would have.4 And yet most of us now intuitively recognize its value and utility, which have been overwhelmingly positive. Google Earth has been used to track genocide in Sudan, monitor border disputes in Georgia and Russia, and assist relief and rescue operations during Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters. Many of us have used Google Earth first hand to scope out real estate, our streets or hometowns, or some far off place.
A power move toward scalable space governance
AUKUS can bring a similar level of openness and transparency to the space domain. Public Space Awareness would help bring order to space traffic, accountability to debris, and visibility to all objects and actions in space. The chaotic interstate that McDowell described could become orderly Autobahns, allowing us to accelerate space exploration for the benefit of humanity.
https://www.space.com/how-many-satellites-fit-safely-earth-orbit
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3604036/us-uk-australia-announce-trilateral-deep-space-advanced-radar-capability-initia
See Ostrom’s Nobel lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/ostrom_lecture.pdf