Almost every constituency of the space community has a society representing the interests of that group. However, there is no such organization for those of us who are interested in space debris. If ever there was a growth aspect to space, this must be it. Space debris issues are growing every day and affecting more and more people, groups, companies and government policies. Yet it is largely ignored.
We have one group spending millions of dollars on searching for extraterrestrial life, and yet we do not have even one viable contact. That is, if we you don't count Carl Sagan's work on "Contact." NASA has spent several hundred million dollars on a spacecraft looking for exoplanets. This has finally given "Goldilocks" some adult relevance. Oh, by the way, it has also found a good number of exoplanets that might support life. But we can never travel to them, because they are too far away.
The aerospace community has professional societies that represent some 30,000 professionals in the field. These societies offer a great number of opportunities to "preach to the choir," but very little opportunity to make the industry more relevant, productive or innovative.
There are, in fact, very few opportunities to make a difference where it counts. Well, here is one. Everyone knows that space debris may well eventually prevent access to the near-Earth space environment and eliminate the possibility of continued use of this space for science, defense and commerce. Yet, there is no organized group attempting to create open forums or discussion events to address the big issues and to change policies.
So, please, somebody get on this!
