We are very excited to announce that from June 3rd to June 5th, 2026, Politecnico di Milano (Italy) will host the Second “Space capacity allocation for the sustainability of space activities” workshop.
If you would still like to join the workshop online, you can find the agenda and registration details on the workshop website. The workshop is open to space operators, regulators, researchers working in the space debris field and in space law.
The aim of the workshop is:
- to discuss and compare current advances in research on space capacity modelling and management towards reaching an international agreement on modelling the space capacity and defining an accepted threshold.
- to offer a constructive and interdisciplinary framework to advance the discussion on space sustainability and space capacity management, including from a legal and economic perspective.
- to engage with the different factors that affect space sustainability at large, such as long-term orbital capacity, short term slotting for space traffic management, emission into the atmosphere at re-entry and launch, integration between re-entry and air traffic control, light pollution by orbiting spacecraft.
Some highlights from the programme include:
Wednesday, June 3rd
- Keynote on Space debris as an environmental stressor: analogies and insights from Planetary Boundary-based absolute environmental sustainability assessment by Esther Sanyé-Mengual & Thibaut Maury from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) & Directorate General for Defence industry and Space (DEFIS), European Commission
- Highlight on “Towards a sustainable space environment, one technology at a time” by Stijn Lemmens, European Space Agency
- Highlight on “NASA’s Orbital Debris Modelling Activities and Risk from Small Debris” by J.-C. Liou, NASA
- Interactive space debris modelling exercise organised together with the MIT ARCLab
Thursday, June 4th
- Highlight on lessons learned from the IADC on space debris modelling by Alessandro Rossi IFAC-CNR
- Interactive exercise on measuring space capacity organised with ESA
- Workshop on translating technical mitigation actions into policy, organised together with the Secure World Foundation
- Panel with spacecraft operators on achieving sustainable operations in orbit
Friday, June 5th
- Panel Discussion on “Space debris: international coordination effort for a more sustainable shared space” with Marco Castronuovo (ASI), J.-C. Liou (NASA), Andrea Vena (ESA), Thibault Maury (EU DEFIS), Lorenzo Arona (UNOOSA)
- Discussions on integrating the many dimensions of space sustainability into a common framework
- And many more interesting presentations!
The workshop is organised by Politecnico di Milano, the European Space Agency, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and EUCASS.
The workshop is sponsored by the GREEN SPECIES project funded by the European Research Council led by Politecnico di Milano and co-sponsored by Secure World Foundation.
