Space Security in the Context of Cosmic Hazards and Planetary Defense

Abstract

When most people think of space security, and especially “space safety,” they tend to think of space safety for astronauts and successful launch of satellites, or strategic systems related to missile defense. Some may even think of the threats that could come from orbital space debris. This chapter, however, examines space security from yet another perspective. It addresses cosmic hazards that humanity faces from asteroids, comets, solar storms, and even shifts in the Earth magnetosphere. These space hazards are very real threats to global security and modern civilization. Too often we tend to forget that our world travels through the hostile environment of outer space and is indeed quite vulnerable to cosmic hazards of various types.

This chapter focuses on the fact that humans live on a six sextillion ton planet that orbits the sun once a year and travels millions of kilometers through a quite dangerous cosmic environment as it speeds through space at close to 100,000 km/h.

Chapter 11 in Part I of the HOSS discusses “space safety” from the perspective of astronaut and spacecraft risk and reliability, and also considers the problems of sustainability of space, orbital debris, and space traffic management.

This chapter, however, addresses “space safety” from the perspective of asteroids and comets that are potentially hazardous and could impact Earth in various ways – in the air, on land, in the oceans, or just offshore. It also addresses the hazards that come with solar storms that include high-energy X-ray flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Further the chapter even addresses emerging problems associated with the Earth’s reversing magnetic poles. The now clearly detected shift in the geomagnetosphere is a concern. This is because during this time of reversal, the Earth’s natural protective shielding against the ions from the sun that come with CMEs are greatly diminished. This means that humanity and our electrical power grids, pipelines, communications networks, and satellites will be much more vulnerable to violent solar storms during the time of this magnetic reversal.

The structure of this chapter is that it first addresses the threat to the world from potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. It then addresses the issue of solar radiation flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and then finally it addresses the complication that comes from the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic north and south poles.