Space Trash And Climate Change Are US President Joe Biden's Main Focus

JAKARTA - The President of the United States (US), Joe Biden, plans to pay special attention to the use of outer space. Biden aims to help climate change and invest in education that includes science and technology.

The announcement was made by US Vice President Kamala Harris in details of the Biden administration's plans to approach commercial, civilian, and military space activities going forward.

Dubbed the United States Framework for Outer Space Priorities, the document retains many of the same space priorities of previous administrations. Biden simply added a new emphasis on using space to help fight climate change.

Citing The Verge, Friday, December 3, the new framework comes ahead of a recent National Space Council meeting chaired by Harris. The National Space Council is a legacy of the George HW Bush administration, which was created by executive order in 1989 with the Vice President at the helm.

First, the Biden administration is still advancing the mission set out by the administration of former US President Donald Trump. In particular, NASA's ambitious Artemis program. Where the agency will send humans back to the Moon and explore the Solar System with a robotic spacecraft.

The mission fosters a competitive regulatory environment for aerospace companies and defends against security threats in space while strengthening space assets.

Next second, in contrast to previous administrations, there is a new focus on the use of space in the fight against climate change. The document said the government promised to invest in satellites that could observe Earth from space, helping scientists better understand climate change.

The Trump administration, which has notoriously downplayed the urgency of climate change, has little interest in using space for climate science initiatives, and President Trump's budget requests have often tried to cancel various earth science missions at NASA. However, those efforts were largely unsuccessful.

Interestingly in third place, the Biden administration has also pledged to step up US efforts to combat space debris, which poses a growing threat to satellites. This plan comes just two weeks after Russia blew up one of its own satellites in orbit, creating at least 1,700 pieces of traceable debris that pose a threat to the International Space Station (ISS).