CA23118 - Futures-oriented Governance of Outer Space: Towards Peace, Equity, and Environmental Integrity (FOGOS)

Europe faces rapidly rising geopolitical, socio-economic, and environmental stakes in outer space. The European space industry is crucial for economic growth and innovation. European scientific organizations are at the forefront of the global space sciences. Orbital satellite infrastructures play diverse and essential roles for European telecommunications and navigation. In the future, further exploration of the solar system holds vast potential for scientific discoveries and socio-economic development, possibly including by tapping various types of space resources. The COST Action “Futures-Oriented Governance of Outer Space: Towards Peace, Equity, and Environmental Integrity” (FOGOS) brings together researchers from Europe and beyond that work on diverse aspects of space governance and space futures across scientific disciplines. Starting from a comprehensive concept of sustainability that encompasses peace, equity, and environmental integrity as its core components, the aim of FOGOS is to improve the understanding of governance mechanisms and processes that can facilitate the attainment of sustainable space futures towards the middle of the 21st century for Europe. FOGOS will engage in a stocktake of existing governance mechanisms and processes; evaluate their potential deficits, gaps, and inconsistencies; and propose policy recommendations towards a grand political bargain aligned with the achievement of sustainable space futures over approximately the next three decades. The Action will do so by engaging policymakers and stakeholders from industry, science, and civil society. Through its networking and capacity-building activities, FOGOS will put Europe center stage in the contemporary global debate on outer space and its futures.