A Sustainable Future for Space: Things Are Only Impossible Until They’re Not!

Hundreds of millions of small parts orbit the earth as space debris – and the number is growing. The production of electronics and other components used in space travel requires many resources such as rare earths. Chiara Manfletti, Professor of Space Mobility and Propulsion at TUM and CEO of the space start-up Neuraspace, is convinced that we can't keep bringing resources from Earth into space forever, but that we need to establish a kind of circular economy there too: "For a sustainable future of space, we need to research things that still sound a bit like science fiction today."

At re:publica 24, Chiara will not only talk about how important space is for sustainable life on Earth. She will also shed light on the challenges that space must face in order to become more sustainable: "There can be answers to climate change from space, for example through Earth observation services, which are the basis for important research – but which also have an economic dimension."