IAC in Baku
I recently attended the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Baku, Azerbaijan to present a paper on On-Orbit Servicing Mishaps and receive an award as one of the International Astronautical Federation's Emerging Space Leaders (ESL). I am so humbled to have received this grant among 29 other incredible young adults from around the world working to make space a better place. I have had a paper accepted to the IAC for the last few years in a row, but not been able to attend primarily due to conflicts with military service. Getting a paper accepted and funding to go was a dream come true. The ESL grant is particularly special because there are not many selectees from established space nations, most are from emerging space nations, and it's an interest of mine to work with partners to increase space capabilities in emerging and developing nations. Despite the political situation in Azerbaijan, I chose to go for the purpose of meeting my peers and attending the United Nations (UN) workshop, and decided to stay in the region for a month follow-on to do a field research project on history of conflict and commerce in Central Asia in order to diversify my education since a lot of it has focused on the US and South Asia. I used to write “After Action Reports” in the military after experiences like this, so here is my version of that. This post covers Azerbaijan and the IAC, more posts will come covering Uzbekistan and Georgia.
UN Workshop
I attended the UN Workshop on Space Technology for Socio-Economic Benefits for three days, and it was fabulous. This workshop focused on global capacity-building of space competencies between developing and well-established space nations. The speakers came from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Nepal, Venezuela, and more. They were engineers, accountants, space lawyers, from industry, academia, IGOs, Non-Profits, and governments. Together, we built a common vocabulary and discussed the needs, wants, and methods for capacity-building in space.
Aspiring: Wants a space program, maybe has launched a CubeSat
Emerging: Has working uses of space data or has launched some small satellites, now considering national space law development
Established: Has many satellites, has a national space law, has educational and industrial base to support space activities
Most of the needs discussed focused on the usability of space data particular to a country’s needs, education for their young people and politicians, the need to “advocate up” for space technology and policy, and way to share resources and expertise in a particular region. One panel shared the number one capacity building gap and priority for their country, here are the takeaways:
Zimbabwe: young professionals to acquire certain skills - exchange programs
Ghana: indigenous knowledge and training programs
Tanzania: politicians and professionals need to see what others are doing
Cote d'Ivoire: online education for students
UN FAO: how do we aggregate this information, then how do we deal with language barrier
Group: Geopolitical groupings have space programs (asia-pacific, South america, etc). How can africa make a grouping to leverage expertise?
One of my observations was that there were no American speakers until the last day, and those speakers only discussed their work on capacity-building outside of the Global North. I thought this focus scope was incredible, and I was so pleased to be outside the US and Defense sphere of influence on space policy. The full schedule and all presentations are available at this link: https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/schedule/2023/un-iaf-workshop.html Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the topics, I have notes from the event that may be able to help. Otherwise, most presenters are on Linkedin. If you work in these areas of need, PLEASE reach out! This was the most meaningful event I participated in, and I have so much thanks for the UN Office of Outer Space (OOSA) for organizing and moderating this event, and for the IAF for enabling my attendance through the ESL programme. Thank you!
International Astronautical Congress
The IAC consisted of wandering around, bothering members of the State Department, Secure World Foundation, Office of Space Commerce, and NASA about my big ideas for bringing the space technology and space law community together while I’m living in Seattle. There were panels, technical sessions, an exhibition hall, and keynote speakers. I spent most of my time in the International Institute for Space Law (IISL) sponsored sessions learning as much as I could and collaborating on new ideas. In this setting and through side discussions with engineers, you could see the problems with the lack of integration of these groups. You don’t see a lot of technical folks branch out into the Law related sessions, and vice versa. There were a few notable exceptions in safety and sustainability focused sessions that blended these communities and their ideas well. Here are a few presentations I took note of:
Space Sustainability Rating, (speaker) Dr Danielle Wood, MIT Media Lab
This work gave an update on the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) nonprofit project to independent review spacecraft and spacecraft operators and assign a sustainability rating. They conduct a full investigation, and conclude with recommendations for that specific entity to improve their rating. Most sustainability aware practices must occur at the design stage, but there are late stage and operational practices that can be included to mitigate risk and improve the SSR.
Space Sustainability in LEO: a multidisciplinary approach to identify and mitigate economic, operational and technological risks of active debris removal solutions, (speaker) Catello Leonardo Matonti, Politecnico di Torino
This work was such a trip. It was a partnership between some Aerospace Engineering PhDs and a Business Management School. They figured out a way to map the technologies that exist on an on-orbit servicer (OOS) conducting active debris removal to its dual-use nature. The on-board technologies include thruster, propellant, and attachment mechanism. They looked at ease of maneuverability and potential for damage. It was so cool, they came up with their map visually, overlaying the "risk" of the technology and the area giving the rating. I think there's a lot of room for cool future work here and important ramifications for how we do export control that can be good for the OOS community.
IISL Debate: Be It Resolved, Non-Legally Binding Instruments like the Artemis Accords will Lead to the Harmonization of the Law of Outer Space with Dr Frans von Der Dunk, Ruvimbo Samanga, Ian Grosner, PJ Blount
This was awesome to witness such an iconic crowd debate this topic. There were assigned roles so it wasn't necessarily personal opinion driven, but they were able to change the minds of folks in the room. I wish stuff like this could reach a wider audience, more than the space law community could benefit from watching and understanding these sorts of instruments debated.
My presentation! In the Case of an On-Orbit Service Mishap: A Study of Investigation, Insurance and Liability
My session saw no speakers or the chair show up, just me and Dr Andrea Harrington, a wonderful space lawyer that led the US Space Force team to the Manfred Lachs Moot Court World Semi-Finals this year. So I talked for maybe 25 minutes, I had to go first, and was incredibly nervous. It's been awhile since I've given a talk and there were a lot of experts in the room on the topics I'd bring up. Being a sole-author was nerve-wracking! Andrea talked for maybe 40 minutes on her topic, which was wonderful to hear, and then we were done. It was overall a wonderful experience and I'm excited for next steps in my research. Please contact me for the paper or the slides.
Keynote: Richard Dalbello with an update on TraCSS from the Office of Space Commerce
Mr Dalbello introducted the topic by stating that this office is a US regulator with US focus but knows anything they'll do has impacts at the international level. So they consider in the future, how do we do traffic management for all nations? He goes on to discuss the key components of the Traffic Coordination System for Space and includes a note that these slides and a video explaining can be found here: https://www.space.commerce.gov/july-28-update-on-tracss/. I took note that there are three distinct components: OASIS, a data repository, SKYLINE, an SSA application service, and HORIZON, an experimental modeling, simulation tool led by NASA. There are lots of opportunities for US businesses to give feedback through the Federal commenting system, please let me know if you’re interested in learning more about how to watch for Request for Comments and how to prepare a formal statement.
Political Situation in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan was a very interesting place to visit, especially in a professional capacity. Many of us expressed that we'd never experienced the arrival of an event and been so celebrated. It seemed the IAC and its branding took up every corner of Baku, from the airport, to the taxis, and even the billboards around town. It was like being the mayor and showing up for the state fair, except I am just a researcher and the "fair" was 6,349 miles away. It was hard to ignore the latest flare of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh between the Azerbaijan government and ethnic Armenians there that had fought and won the right to a semi-autonomous region 30 years ago. This flare up resulted in the mass exodus and ethnic cleansing of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and further border clashes particularly concerning trade between Armenia and Iran. It was easy to ignore in Baku, where life carried on as if normal in a very European-feeling city. A Central Asian expert and colleague had warned me of nationalistic "chest-thumping" I might encounter in Baku, but I didn’t particularly observe this. A few weeks later I made a friend that had been in Armenia around the same time, and there were noticable differences comparing notes. He said that Yerevan was quite somber, with no celebrations and a very depressed mood around any social activities. The Azerbaijanis I discussed the conflict with tended to have a solemn way of sharing their thoughts, claiming that Azerbaijan is a place of diversity and equality for all and that this conflict was unfortunate.
The only open acknowledgement of the conflict came from the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, during his speech at the IAC's Opening Ceremony. The actions of Azerbaijan's military and policies throughout the years were excused in the name of defense and sovereignty, a tale as old as time. The space community's staunch commitment to remaining apolitical since space is a "peaceful" domain was evident throughout the week, with no other acknowledgements of Azerbaijan's human rights practices, the definition of ethnic cleansing, and some praise of his brave speech. Since space is driven primarily by States with colonial and imperialistic pasts, it is easy to ignore nuances in the reporting of these events and the real impacts on people's lives. It's not new, I studied this with the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, where they were called "Bangladeshi" because at some point in history (centuries ago) they had come from Bangladesh. Why were they not assimilated like all other groups that had been there for centuries? Because Myanmar is 97% Buddhist and the Rohingya were primarily Muslim. This violence that ensure from being the religious or ideological "other" is prevalent with almost every modern conflict. (Cold War, Sunnis vs Shia, Israel vs Palestine). Honestly, I don't really have any conclusions or calls to action on this, just observations and the hope that speaking my observations develops into more meaningful conversations on these topics.
The above paragraphs were drafted prior to the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. Many calls to action and further observations are captured on my Instagram. This post is about Azerbaijan, not Palestine, and my ruminations on genocide prevention continue to develop. It’s a horrible thing to witness occur again and again throughout the world while international legal bodies for the protection of human rights are shown to be powerless.
My Reading List for Azerbaijan:
Roll Over Joe Stalin: Struggling with Post-Soviet Reform in the Caucasus by Craig MacPhee
Paired this with a lot of readings on Azerbaijan and the oil industry
Reinterpreting the enemy: Geopolitical beliefs and the attribution of blame in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by Scott Radnitz
Between Russia and a Hard Place by Scott Radnitz
Rebels with a Cause: Does Ideology Make Armed Conflics Longer and Bloodier? By Matthias Basedau, Mora Deitch, Ariel Zellman
My Ponderings
Baku had a wonderful pour-over coffee scene, and betteer-aligned with my palate than Seattle’s coffee scene
I want to do something that helps me learn more about the law and the world. How do I continue to do interdisciplinary research like this and also pay rent?
I started my space law journey from being interested in Conflict, and I find myself deep in the Journal of Conflict Resolution now. I don't really know where space and conflict intersect, but I wonder if that's my niche instead of space engineering and space law? Space conflict prevention and resolution?
Do I do a PhD now? Do I do something fun in Seattle right now and do a PhD later?
Thanks for reading along! I hope you learned something new, and this was a thought-provoking read. Please send me your thoughts or leave comments!
