Beyond planetary protection: What is planetary sustainability and what are its implications for space research?

This paper presents recent developments in the interdisciplinary topic of “planetary sustainability” and discussesits potential implications for space research.The current COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy address scientific space exploration only and is primarilyconcerned with the issue of contamination with micro-organisms. Other impacts of human space exploration thatmay be detrimental to space exploration itself are not covered. The best known example is the anthropogenicspace debris orbiting Earth, but similar problems will occur in other places due to scientific and commercialspace exploration in the near future.One possible approach to discuss and mitigate the impact of space exploration on the environment is toconsider the space environment as integral part of sustainable development. The resulting concept of “planetarysustainability” and its ethical, scientific, economic, and legal ramifications were discussed during a workshop co-sponsored by the International Space Science Institute in March 2018. In this paper, wefirst summarize theresults of this workshop. Then we propose potential implications of this concept for space research and reportreactions and suggestions by members of the space research community during the COSPAR assembly 2018.