Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Maria Pozza: International Space Expert on New Zealand joining the multi-national space initiative Operation Olympic Defender

Transcript

Maria Pozza: International Space Expert on New Zealand joining the multi-national space initiative Operation Olympic Defender · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New Zealand has accepted an invitation to join the US
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: lead multinational space initiative, Operation Olympic Defender. It's about defense,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: it's about deterring what they call hostile actions in space.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: The US, the UK, Canada and Australia all part of
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the group. Judith Collins says, we'll deploy Defense Force liaison
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: officer to the US Space Command in Colorado for the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: next two years. Doctor Maria Potza is a lawyer and
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  Speaker 1: international space law expert, and she joins me this morning.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Morena Ryan, how are you.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I'm very well. Thank you Tell me how serious the
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  Speaker 1: threat is a defense threat from space or in space.
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  Speaker 2: Look, there's always threats in space, but those threats tend
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  Speaker 2: to be posed mainly by space debris, so as opposed
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  Speaker 2: to the hostile nature that you speak of a little
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  Speaker 2: bit earlier. Look, we don't have huge threats of that
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: nature to be terribly terribly concerned about. It is though,
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  Speaker 2: the sustainability and space debris that we're seeing a rise
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: of that does make us a little bit more concerned
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  Speaker 2: when we think about threats, because of course, if you've
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  Speaker 2: got a lot of space debris in space, then you've
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  Speaker 2: got a problem of accessing space. Now. NASA and there's
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  Speaker 2: a couple of other organizations around the world do monitor
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  Speaker 2: space debris particles, but we need to have clear pathways
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  Speaker 2: to space and orders get assets up there for both
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  Speaker 2: military purposes, commercial purposes, as well as human exploration. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm hoping that that.
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  Speaker 1: Helps a little bit, because that is what this is
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  Speaker 1: focused with them, This is like rubbish collection.
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  Speaker 2: Well, hopefully we'll get there soon. But the really important
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  Speaker 2: thing about this program and us joining this program is
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  Speaker 2: it's not just about safe, responsible, secure use of space.
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  Speaker 2: It's about sustainable use of space and resilience of the
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  Speaker 2: space structure. So it's much much more than just the
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  Speaker 2: one idea.
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  Speaker 1: Right, how many pieces of space her up there?
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  Speaker 2: A good question. I have no idea, but there's a lot.
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  Speaker 1: Someone told me it was more than more than half
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  Speaker 1: a billion pieces. Would that all be from us, things
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  Speaker 1: that we have put up there and that are flying around?
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  Speaker 1: And how do you how do you go about cleaning
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  Speaker 1: up space?
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  Speaker 2: All? Right? Look, big, big complex questions. First of all,
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  Speaker 2: because we know exactly I haven't had coffee yet, so
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  Speaker 2: I'll do my best. Look, I wouldn't know exactly how
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  Speaker 2: many pieces of space debrusy there are floating rut up
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  Speaker 2: there because we've got something called the Kessler syndrome, and
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  Speaker 2: that's whereby you've got one piece of space debris that
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  Speaker 2: could collide with another piece of space debrary and cause
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  Speaker 2: lots and lots of more space debrrisy, and it becomes
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  Speaker 2: really hard to monitor that new space debrary because of
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: course most of us as are pointing at the Earth,
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  Speaker 2: so we can make estimations and we can make an
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  Speaker 2: estimate of trajectory of that new space debris and what
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  Speaker 2: it might be and where it's heading to. But that's
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  Speaker 2: why I say, I'm just not sure, because we may
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  Speaker 2: have had lots of collision pieces and they may just
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  Speaker 2: be floating up all around up there. Now. You said
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  Speaker 2: about you asked a question about space junk and space
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  Speaker 2: deb re collection. I know that there's quite a few
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  Speaker 2: nations around the world looking at this. We've even got
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  Speaker 2: a U N Organization committee who are looking at the
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  Speaker 2: question of space ever, and yeah, we are looking at
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  Speaker 2: organized you know, how how we com mitigate space every
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  Speaker 2: I mean, don't have a crystal ball, but it's going
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  Speaker 2: to happen.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess the thing is, if we can't clean
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  Speaker 1: up the ocean, how can we clean up space?
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  Speaker 2: These are all good questions, all good questions.
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  Speaker 1: So the threat from other countries, you know, the defense three.
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  Speaker 1: You're saying that that's not such a serious thing, like
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  Speaker 1: people countries aren't trying at the moment to be able
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to hit Earth from space or can they already?
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: Gosh, again, a lot of good questions there, whether or
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  Speaker 2: not they have the capability to do so. I don't
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: think actually anyone knows. But what I will say is this,
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  Speaker 2: our joining the program, the Olympic program, is not necessarily
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  Speaker 2: a response to some imminent hostile threat that's happening at
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  Speaker 2: the moment. What I'm getting at is our joining this
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  Speaker 2: program is a really important step for New Zealand on
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  Speaker 2: a range of issues, and Minister Collins has really got
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  Speaker 2: us going in the right direction when you think about
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  Speaker 2: how we are shirting ourselves on that space stage of
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  Speaker 2: the Space Ferry nation.
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  Speaker 1: Good to have it, good to be at the table
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  Speaker 1: as things get underway. Doctor Maria Potts, So thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much for your time this morning. Really appreciate it.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Sorry about the questions. Lawyer and international space law expert.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, because at Russia and China, what are
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  Speaker 1: they doing up there? I imagine something, you know, they'll
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  Speaker 1: be eyeing something, and are we worried about that? Do
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  Speaker 1: you want to make sure that we're with our five
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  Speaker 1: Eyurs partners up there making sure, you know, patrolling space
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  Speaker 1: not only there with the hoover camming up the debris
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  Speaker 1: that we've left up there, but also you know, protecting it.
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• 5:09
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• 5:11
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• 5:13
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