Humans have looked to the stars for guidance for thousands of years — and when it comes to questions of sustainability, the practice is no different.  

The best way to deal with climate change is a heated topic of debate here on Earth — laws are created, nonprofits are formed, investments are made, and lobbyists have their say — but the concept also transcends terrestrial boundaries. As we navigate the complexities of shifting to a more sustainable world, it turns out there is a lot we can learn from and apply to our ventures in outer space.  

Researchers in the Ivan Allen College think big to explore questions of sustainability on Earth, in outer space, and on a cosmic scale.  

The Importance of Megaregions 

Brian Woodall, a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, uses satellite data to rethink how we understand and address sustainability in our cities. He directs the Sustainable Megaregion Research Project with Mariel Borowitz, an associate professor in the Nunn School, and experts across Georgia Tech.  

The group uses data generated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to draw definitive boundaries around Earth's megaregions — large, densely-populated areas such as the Boston-Washington corridor, Greater Tokyo, and the Amsterdam-Brussels-Antwerp triangle. Then, the researchers combine light emissions and other datasets to analyze CO2 emissions, urban buildup, green space, population density, transportation infrastructure, and more.  

"In this way, satellite data is critical in our efforts to fashion a comparative, time-sensitive, and data-driven system for delineating megaregion boundaries," Woodall said. "Then, we can assess their effectiveness in addressing sustainable development challenges." 

According to the project website, three-quarters of America's population and employment growth will occur in just eight to ten megaregions by 2050. To ensure sustainability in the face of climate threats, we must build resilience and protect critical infrastructure in these areas, the group says. 

Political Parallels 

However, whether it’s in megaregions or across international borders, it's no secret that humans don't always get along. Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Nunn School, studies the politics of outer space with a focus on the Chinese space program. He says that comparing sustainability challenges on Earth to those in space — such as the 100 million+ pieces of space junk littering Earth's orbit — underscores the political nature of these problems and their international nature.  

"The politics of space sustainability largely reflect the politics of sustainability on Earth, as humans continue to confront difficult collective action problems in both domains," Hines explains. "Neither global warming nor space debris care for the human constructs of sovereignty and national borders." 

Tony Harding, an economist and assistant professor in the School of Public Policy, echoes this sentiment.  

"We have this public good, which is space and near Earth's orbit, where we put satellites. And because no one is in control and has property rights in that area, we end up with an overuse and a lot of space junk," he says. "This parallels the Tragedy of the Commons problem we see on Earth — we have issues with climate change because we're all contributing a small amount to the problem and not facing the full cost of it." 

Harding studies the costs and benefits of solar geoengineering, which uses atmospheric particles to reflect the sun's radiation to slow global warming. Whether it's adding sulfate to the skies or cleaning up Earth's orbit, an intergenerational perspective is helpful, he says.  

"Should we develop geoengineering technology so the next generation has the choice to use it? Should we leave them with millions of pieces of space debris just because we don't want to clean it ourselves?" 

Second Time's a Charm(?) 

Despite the growing space debris problem, Borowitz emphasizes that we can proactively address the challenges of space sustainability and learn from our mistakes on Earth.  

"It's still early on in space, so we have the opportunity to think about sustainability from the beginning and address these issues before the debris is completely out of control," she says. "We are on an unsustainable path at the moment, but we can adjust before anything goes wrong." 

She adds that as interest and activity on the moon ramp up, the same questions apply. Because the moon doesn't have wind or weather like we do on Earth, when something changes its surface it can stay like that for thousands of years.  

"So it's really another place where you've got to do it right the first time," Borowitz says. "This is the test, right? The test for humanity — can we do it differently?" 

Sustainability on a Cosmic Scale 

Chris Michaels, a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Scholar in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, thinks about space from a symbolic perspective: What would happen if we scale up our consciousness to the level of the cosmos? Michaels teaches a course on modern terraforms and says contemplating the vast reaches of space can challenge us to think about sustainability in new ways. 

"The idea of space serves as a new frontier to be explored and colonized. If humans can migrate to other planets and make them home, then sustainability on Earth may look quaint and outdated," he says. "Humans tend to experience time on an atomized scale around their individual lives and have trouble thinking as concretely about the long term. But imagine if humans had a life span of 500 years, or they thought and acted less as individuals and more as members of a human race that extends thousands or even millions of years into the future. Thinking and acting on this larger scale would better align us with the geological timescales of the Earth, where sustaining our lives goes hand in hand with sustaining the Earth." 

The sprawling expanse of space is more than just an escape route from our troubled planet, and pondering it helps us shift our perspective from that of the starring role in our little galaxy to a bit character in a much larger play. 

Traditional Inspiration, New Solutions 

From satellite-driven research to geopolitical challenges and cosmic contemplation, humans continue to look to the stars for inspiration and information on keeping our planet and its orbit healthy. 

When it comes to our mandate for more sustainable living, it's not just about protecting our home but how we fit into the wider universe. Becoming better caretakers of our planet connects us to our past and future, here on Earth and out among the stars. 

Georgia Tech materials engineers have unraveled the mechanism that causes degradation of a promising new material for solar cells — and they’ve been able to stop it using a thin layer of molecules that repels water.

Their findings are the first step in solving one of the key limitations of metal halide perovskites, which are already as efficient as the best silicon-based solar cells at capturing light and converting it into electricity. They reported their work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

“Perovskites have the potential of not only transforming how we produce solar energy, but also how we make semiconductors for other types of applications like LEDs or phototransistors. We can think about them for applications in quantum information technology, such as light emission for quantum communication,” said Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, assistant professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the study’s senior author. “These materials have impressive properties that are very promising.”

Get the full story on the College of Engineering website.

The Kendeda Building Advisory Board has awarded 12 micro research grants ($50 – $500) for sustainability-related, small-scale, short-term studies to be conducted by members of the Georgia Tech community. The request for proposals encouraged researchers to explore ways the Georgia Tech campus can continue to innovate, demonstrate, prove, and promote the adoption of best and next practices in regenerative design and operations. Researchers were also encouraged to use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for research design. All members of the Georgia Tech community were encouraged to apply. The program especially sought proposals from students and staff who had little or no prior research experience. Awardees will present their work at the 2024 Micro Research Grants Symposium, to be held in April 2024.

The program has four objectives:

1. To expand scientific thinking and the understanding of the research process among those not directly involved in scientific research.
2. To bolster the use of the campus as a living laboratory.
3. To give voice to people and communities outside of research that have culturally novel perspectives on problems and their possible solutions, and to create new pathways for partnering with them.
4. To seed novel ideas and nurture nascent investigators.

The awardees are:

• Nicole Allen and Elaina Render
  “An Investigation Into the Cultivability and Regenerative Potential of Various Vegetables and Herbs”
• Maryam Almaian and Patrick Kastner
  “Augmented Architecture: Integrating Numerical Simulations Into Regenerative Design”
• Patrick Barry, Jung-Ho Lewe, and Gray Simmons
  “Project: Low-Cost Current Transformer”
• Nola Charles, Jaila Kimbro, and Hannah Kate Cass
  “GT Be the Bridge”
• Donghyun Choi, Abhinav Shubham, and Manpreet Hora
  “Data Analytics on Science-Based Target Initiatives (SBTi)”
• Jake Churchill, Victoria Pozzi, Dimitri Kalinin, Zihang Zhang, and Rich Simmons
  “‘Cleaning’ Solar Energy at GT”
• Kenneth Grant and Jung-Ho Lewe
  “Adjustable Occupancy Sensor Mounting Solution”
• Jung-Ho Lewe, Evan Goldstein, and Gray Simmons
  “Low-Cost Building Occupancy Sensor”
• Marisa L. McMichael and Scott Duncan
  “Occupancy Comfort”
• Arnav Patidar, Ronak Agarwal, Sohan Malladi, and Shyamanth Kudum
  “BinVision — Recycle Smarter”
• Hruday Shah, Jung-Ho Lewe, Scott Duncan, and Gray Simmons
  “Monitoring Indoor Ventilation Efficacy Using Inexpensive, Accurate, and Modular Outdoor Air Quality Stations”
• Malte Weiland, Jeannette Yen, Tamsin Leavy, Alan Booker, Gary McNay, Lakshya Sharma, Julie Chen, and Perrin Brady
  “Horticulture and Permaculture Workshop”