# THE FINAL FRONTIER'S RESTING GROUND: UNVEILING THE MYSTERIES OF POINT NEMO

Satellites have become a part of the fabric of modern life, connecting us to each other and helping us locate ourselves. As they increase in number – thanks to endeavours such as Elon Musk’s Starlink – so too must we find a way to deal with the conclusion of their life cycle. More than 6,000 of these cosmic sentinels now float around the Earth, and they all end up in the same place when they die: a watery grave thousands of miles away from land known as Point Nemo.

## THE DE-ORBITING DILEMMA: A CONTROLLED DESCENT

This is done through a multi-step process that varies depending on a spacecraft’s altitude. De-orbiting sends a satellite – whether used up or just worn out – gently into our atmosphere where it is ‘controlled’ upon re-entry so it does not splatter over populated areas or create any unnecessary space junk. As more satellites are being launched with more advanced technologies, the challenge of safely de-orbiting our spacecraft gets harder.

## POINT NEMO: THE SPACECRAFT CEMETERY

On the opposite side of the globe from this realm, Point Nemo hovers in the calm water of the Pacific, welcomed as the most remote place on Earth, a bright new advance for the democratic science of space debris management. For only here can the ultimate advance be made for the end-of-life of a satellite: only here can its final descent of humanity’s orbital avian deportation be guaranteed as safely as possible. This ‘spacecraft cemetery’ has become the advance preference for agencies such as NASA to park its retired spacecraft.

### THE INHABITANTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION'S FUTURE

Among the most famous inhabitants expected to join the silent choir at Point Nemo is the International Space Station (ISS). A landmark achievement in international cooperation and science, it will be de-orbited by 2030. It illustrates the evolution in thinking about the maintenance of space resources and the prevention of dangers.

## THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT OF SPACE DEBRIS

There was nothing random about the choice of Point Nemo as the place to make the calculation that went into minimising terrestrial and marine environmental impact by disposing of satellites in orbit. Point Nemo is way offshore, a kind of buffer zone where the littoral lithosphere meets deep space, protecting land and sea from contamination. Still, this isn’t a solution for which there aren’t any obstacles. In the case of disintegrating satellites, the problem of the environmental impact of dropping off things into the cosmos remains unresolved by the question of disabling.

### AN ALTERNATE ADVANCE: THE GRAVEYARD ORBIT

Further out, beyond the end of the atmosphere, a third approach to spend management is the graveyard orbit, which is simply to throw dead satellites out to a higher orbit, where their inert existence poses little obstacle for active satellites. But it is here that the tip of a new wave of complexity can be seen, a future vexation for space traffic management and space debris mitigation.

## ADVANCING TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SPACE EXPLORATION

With our sights set firmly on the heavens, the orbits that encircle our world are filling up, making careful use all the more necessary. As the space race and spaceflight grow more advanced, and we incorporate ever more satellites around our planet, so too must our methods for managing their life cycle. Whether they rest on the ocean floor at Point Nemo or circle Earth in a deep graveyard orbit, the question of what to do with our old satellites is a vital part of our space stewardship.

### UNDERSTANDING THE ADVANCE OF DE-ORBITING AND SPACE SUSTAINABILITY

In conclusion, mitigating the growth of space debris and enabling future missions for generations to come is a multifaceted challenge. We often think of places such as Nemo as an ark for life, but they can also be an ark for the afterlife of our orbital infrastructure. As we continue to take advantage of all the benefits associated with space technology, it will be critical to build up towards more sophisticated, innovative and ecologically sustainable methods of in-orbit de-orbiting and space debris mitigation. We will look back as one of the most brilliant feats of our ingenuity, and as an act of custodianship over our home, both earthly and cosmic.