Five unique factors could help Greenland become part of the growing global space industry, astrophysicist tells Polar Journal.
Last week, in front of a cheering audience, Daniel Thorleifsen, Director of the Greenland National Museum, was handed the Greenlandic flag, Erfalasorput. An artifact, you would think, that the museum already possessed aplenty.
But this flag was special. This flag had spent six months in space and was handed to him by the man who had brought it back to Earth.
Because that week Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen, who returned from six months in space on March 12th, was in Greenland. He was there in a bid to visit the entirety of the Danish Realm; the kingdom he had represented on the International Space Station.
But more importantly, according to astrophysicist and chief consultant Michael Linden-Vørnle of the Technical University of Denmark’s space unit (DTU Space), he was there to garner attention for Greenland’s potential as a space nation.
“We had arranged a conference aimed at the country’s business community. The goal was to discuss the different possibilities for growth in the space sector, so that Greenland, too, can get a share of the space industry that is growing rapidly in other parts of the world,” said Michael Linden-Vørnle, who also spoke on stage at the conference.
Below, Michael Linden-Vørnle outlines five reasons that Greenland’s space sector has growth potential.
1. The location between continents
His first reason is Greenland’s location between Europe and America. Currently, a gap exists in this corner of the globe; a gap which is ripe for exploitation.
“There are lots of stations on Svalbard and in North America that can receive data from satellites but in Greenland there really isn’t anything. This is especially important for the satellites that pass the poles, and there are many of those,” Michael Linden-Vørnle said.
So, with new data retrieval stations located in Greenland, some data could reach Earth sooner. This is important for surveillance data, for instance, but also data on weather.
“The sooner you get your data down to Earth, the better,” he said.
2. The uninhabited areas
Michael Linden-Vørnle’s second reason is the vast uninhabited areas that exist in Greenland. These areas mean that permissions for rocket launches might be easier to get in Greenland where chances of hitting buildings, infrastructure, and people are lower.
“When launching a rocket, authorities will perform an overall risk assessment, and for rockets that don’t contain toxic chemicals that could pollute Greenland’s untouched nature, these will be easier to get,” he said.
Not all satellites are fit to be launched from Greenland, however. Some satellites draw benefits from being launched near the equator where they are helped by the rotation of the Earth. But for satellites in polar orbit, those that fly north to south or vice versa, this effect does not matter.
It is these satellites that might be launched from Greenland, Michael Linden-Vørnle pointed out.
3. The clean energy
His third reason is the fact that hydroelectric energy is available in many parts of the country; electricity that is generated from dammed up rivers that flow from the Greenland Ice Sheet.
This might seem paradoxical as rocket launches are usually associated with vast amounts of fossil fuels. But Michael Linden Vørnle points to a new launch technology called Spin Launch; a technology that uses centrifugal forces to launch small satellites into space by simply spinning them around until they reach escape velocity.
“The only two things this technology requires are a lot of space and access to cheap energy. Both of these things are available in Greenland,” he said.
4. Predictions of bad ‘space weather’
Michael Linden-Vørnle’s last two points concern topics he has researched himself. For years, researchers from DTU Space where he works have studied space from their facilities in the Greenlandic towns of Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut.
These studies concern two different types of threats from space; the first one being the threat of bad ‘space weather’.
“The sun’s activities create a variety of different disturbances. It disturbs radio communication, which is important for air traffic, and it disturbs signals from navigation satellites. You can’t prevent this, but through our research in Greenland we are becoming better at predicting it,” he said.
5. Prevention of threats from space debris
His fifth and final reason has to do with the growing amount of debris that is orbiting Earth. This is being dealt with in a number of ways by different organizations and countries, but in this question, Greenland might take advantage of its high latitude location.
This northern location allows researchers to more easily observe objects that fly above the pole. It allows them, when the view is not obscured by the eternal sunshine of summer, to look into space in a different direction, Michael Linden-Vørnle pointed out.
“We have a research project going where we will get a telescope to Greenland this summer that will look for both space debris but also asteroids,” he said.
Ole Ellekrog, Polar Journal AG
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