Design meets Astronomy in an Effort to Battle Space Pollution

A new, groundbreaking initiative called "Space Trash Signs", introduced by a coalition of private and public aerospace organizations, aims to increase public awareness for space pollution ahead of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) session in June 2024. To do so, the “Space Trash Signs” initiative combines astronomy and design in an inventive synthesis.

With more than 160 million pieces of man-made debris orbiting the planet at up to 15 km/s, space pollution is currently a growing hazard to vital space infrastructure—including communication, navigation, and environmental monitoring - and that is what makes “Space Trash Signs” a super important cause.

“Since the dawn of time, humans have looked up to the stars for meaning. Space Trash Signs builds on this universal insight, to educate the public about space pollution — a topic that affects us greatly, yet no one talks about. It’s our responsibility as communication experts to change that.”, sais Alex Schill, Chief Creative Officer of Serviceplan GroupThis initiative has caught our attention because of its global importance and its exquisite design too. “Built with real-time data and astronomical precision, Space Trash Signs were identified in partnership with Privateer, the Steve Wozniak co-founded space observation company. Privateer collects over 800 million data points on objects in the Earth’s orbit every day. This includes the position, speed, country of origin, parent object, size, shape, and even the estimated removal cost. Based on shape, origin, and location, an AI model scanned these debris data points to identify the constellations”.

To increase public awareness, "Space Trash Signs" have been included into more than 700 planetariums throughout the globe and popular AR star-gazing apps. Additionally, a strategic digital campaign makes use of the designs to generate fake website faults, unsuccessful package tracking, and missing predictions, pointing people to the "Space Trash Signs" website for further details and doable actions.

With the support of design firms like Eat, Sleep + Design and Moby Digg, the initiative led by Serviceplan Innovation aims to raise awareness for the issue of space debris, in the most effective way. "Space Trash Signs" aims to use design as a catalyst to influence policies and garner public support for a debris-free, cleaner space environment. It has the support of several organizations, including the European Space Agency and other prominent supporters like the U.S.-based space monitoring company Privateer, Japanese-founded global debris-removal innovator Astroscale, several aerospace tech organizations such as WARR and OKAPI:Orbits from Germany, Dark from France and Digantara from India, global astronomical society Astronomers Without Borders, as well as the world’s biggest science museum Deutsches Museum in Munich.