Good Governance In, To, and From Space

Most people’s first encounter with space is through religion or spirituality. The cosmology transmitted through oral traditions, religious texts, cultural norms, and educational institutions lays a foundational framework for understanding one’s place in life and the cosmos. As the new space race rages on, social scientists, lawyers, and ethicists contemplate human conduct in the space domain, from space law to cultivating religious and spiritual beliefs for Martian settlements.

The ideologies of cultural and government leaders undergird the governing and legal structures of societies on Earth and in space. The tribalist focus on technology and gadgets without consideration of the complexities of thriving civilizations (or successful organizations) leaves a detrimental vacuum in humanity’s potential to become a spacefaring species. The immaturity. The unwillingness to have an open mind. The inability to admit failure and defeat. The refusal to objectively assess one’s motives, strategies, and tactics and focus on a positive outcome that benefits populations outside of one’s egocentric preferences. All these components contribute to the inevitable failure of good governance on Earth and in space.

Myriad frameworks and strategic documents are floating around in a particular leader’s vain attempt to state that he or she has the solution to humanity’s problems. However, without a clear action plan and visualization of the benefit of following these dictates, there is little to no incentive for any organization to take action beyond vanity reports for web content.

Here are a couple of measurable points from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that the space industry can take to go beyond the tech and dollars and be a useful, meaningful partner in humanity’s journey on Earth and beyond:

SDG 5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Workforce development and equity are critical to achieving this goal. Relevant targets and indicators include

5.1.1

Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non‑discrimination on the basis of sex

5.5.1

Proportion of seats held by women in (a) national parliaments and (b) local governments

5.5.2

Proportion of women in managerial positions

5.b.1

Proportion of individuals who own a mobile telephone, by sex

5.c.1

Proportion of countries with systems to track and make public allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment

Beyond reporting: Most CSR and comms teams report on the outputs – the number of women in positions or on a team and showcasing their faces in PR campaigns, but what has your organization’s outputs done for the communities you serve, observe, or work with? Have your referral programs increased the number of STEAM jobs for women in a locale and thus reducing poverty? What societal impacts have your organization made that move the needle forward on sustainability?

SDG 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

Earth observation data helps track water reserves around the world to support water management. Relevant targets and indicators include:

6.4.2

Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources

6.6.1

Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time

Beyond reporting: Go beyond showcasing sample data and visualizations and tell the story of what your data can contribute to municipalities, states, and countries to tackle the water crisis. Form coalitions that deliver on making clean water available to impoverished communities. Develop new, potentially hybrid business models that focus on making water accessible or little to no cost or on a sliding scale to overcome financial barriers. Think outside the box, deliver results, tell the story, and repeat.

The ability to monitor life on Earth with a God’s eye view and develop the technology and capacity to build civilizations on other planets is a sexy endeavor to focus on, but the sector must be practical and useful. As long as the space domain is crowded by big egos seeking to overcompensate for unhealed childhood traumas, humanity will never achieve its goal, as the population will be eradicated, orbital debris will make it impossible to leave Earth, and we will have no one to blame for Earth’s demise but the cliques we let mindlessly run our lives and ourselves for refusing to act with our own minds.

Let’s think bigger, lead better, solve humanity's problems, and drive real results!

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