Urgent Security Concerns in the “Proto-zone”

Transcript:Urgent Security Concerns in the “Proto-zone”:
Urgent Security Concerns in the “Proto-zone” Joseph N. Pelton, Executive Board, International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety Book by D. Loth and M. Ernst “How High is Up?” is a Useful Starting Point Loth and Ernst look at the skies in terms of geopolitics. They see a country’s ability to command their air space as being key. They see this as the true basis for any subsequent regulatory or legal jurisdiction. Weapons systems that advanced from arrows, catapults, guns and cannons to today’s aircraft and missiles have served to ultimately increase the altitude of the airspace that a nation controls. Today commercial airspace up to 21 Km is well regulated and subject to air traffic control. This area is coordinated globally by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) under the Chicago Convention of 1948 and updated via Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). From the perspective of Loth and Ernst, the U-2 incident where Gary Powers’ U.S. spy plane was shot down by the Soviet Union changed “How High Is Up.” As a practical matter, this event meant that a nation’s protected air space would ultimately rise to a higher altitude as international law followed the real politik reality of the latest capability of armaments to protect a nation’s skies. Today’s New Problem-“The Proto-zone” The area above commercial airspace, i.e. 21 Km and below the area that can allow satellites to stay in orbit above Earth, i.e. 160 Km is finding more and more applications and this region needs to be considered formally by space legal experts. Uses of this region include stable high altitude and stratospheric craft such as aerostats, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS), and so-called “dark sky” research and relay stations. These stable “non velocity” systems are in contrast to systems travelling at altitude, i.e. robotic stratospheric freighters, space planes, hyper sonic or super sonic aircraft, or military craft. There is much discussion about the need for space traffic management and control, but there is an equal need to establish Protospace traffic management and control and coordinated use of this region that has increasing levels of use. There is the additional element of concern for pollution to the stratosphere, especially with space planes with solid fuels. Bristol Ascender— Hypersonic Transport Google Solar Powered Stratospheric Balloons for Internet Relay Prototype of Dark Sky Station by JP Aerospace The Law of the Sea Convention