How does space exploration benefit us? Space technologies directly correlate to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Earth Observation (EO) satellites play a significant role in monitoring environmental conditions and supporting policy decisions. While they offer valuable insights, there are concerns about privacy loss and potential detachment from local populations. Similarly, there are potential benefits of microgravity healthcare and manufacturing while also concerns about the environmental impact of increased rocket launches..

When I ask the question ‘how does space impact life on earth’ it is worth us questioning whose life we are talking about. There are, after all, roughly eight billion of us. 

I find the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) a useful proxy for the ideal goals for a sustainable future for all humanity. The SDGs are 17 ambitious goals concerning our world's most important social, economic, and environmental issues. All 191 UN Member States (representing over 99% of the world’s population) have committed to try achieving by 2030.  These are aspirations such as SDG 2: Zero Hunger; SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy; or SDG 13: Climate Action.  Space technologies already contribute greatly to the accomplishment of these global goals; however, these technologies can also pose issues that are worth considering.

Perhaps the most significant space technology for the Sustainable Development Goals is Earth Observation (EO) satellites.  A wide array of satellite data is central to how governments monitor progress for nearly all the 17 SDGs’ (EO is used for nearly half of the UN’s 169 targets and 230 indicators.), but most especially environmental goals.  Especially with lower barriers to the launch and manufacture of satellites, precise, real-time data collection is becoming more accessible.  This is especially important when monitoring environmental conditions in unpopulated regions that may actually be the most sensitive to climate change (like Antarctica).  Furthermore, satellite data is empowering both communities and countries throughout the world to use insights from satellite data to make better policy decisions.  Realtime EO data is even being used to stop everything from illegal logging to sex trafficking.

At the same time, it’s worth thinking about some of the risks that come with this new technology.  Satellite data is an incredibly powerful tool.  Camera resolutions now are powerful enough to capture imagery on the order of centimeters.  That corresponds to a huge loss of privacy; however, the risk that I find particularly salient is that with the ability to make public policy decisions based on real data.  I mean a traffic control engineer could now hypothetically count the number of cars on the road during rush hour.  My concern is that it will encourage policymakers to stop talking to real people.  It’s easy to imagine that the time-consuming task of going out, asking everyday people to explain in detail why social problems occur, and sorting through all the disagreements and noise – it’s much easier for a bureaucrat to pull open some satellite imagery, run some software analysis, and then make incredibly impactful decisions without consulting the local population.

While the impact of Earth Observation (EO) satellites on global monitoring is perhaps the most significant impact that space technologies are currently having on the SDGs, there are numerous other intersections.  One very active and promising area of research is in microgravity healthcare.  Biological systems in near-weightless conditions see increased virulence and accelerated cell growth.  This could increase the effectiveness of drug delivery systems and other biotechnologies.  Stem cells grow better in space.  Microgravity also modifies the characteristics of certain materials, allowing for the creation of materials and manufacturing techniques not possible on Earth.

But what would happen if there were fantastic benefits of healthcare and manufacturing in microgravity, and the number of rocket launches increased exponentially?  Think that the burning of fossil fuels in the 19th Century had not made a noticeable impact on global temperatures, but the scale was smaller.  Our world burns over 15 times the amount of fossil fuels annually as compared with the year 1900.  The space industry presents that same risk. Rocket emissions have been shown to have problematic effects in the upper atmosphere, especially the ozone layer; however, in 2021, there were only 144 rocket launches.  What would happen if rocket launches began to approach the scale of commercial air flight, which in the same year, had over 20 million flights?  We don’t really know.  But it does seem plausible that advancements in microgravity healthcare would benefit (at least initially) the well-being of individuals in spacefaring nations, at the expense of the environmental conditions and thus well-being of individuals in non-spacefaring nations.