Director: Grace Song — Committee Type: General Assembly

A new cosmic age dawns from a night sky that is no longer silent; satellites streak across low-Earth orbit in glittering swarms, while probes reach deeper into the Solar System than ever before. Each launch, each constellation, and each sample return mission pushes us further into both extraordinary opportunity but unprecedented risk. The Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) confronts this rapidly shifting frontier, tasked with guiding global cooperation, protecting scientific integrity, and ensuring that space remains a shared sphere. As the orbits become more crowded, COPUOS must ascertain the equivalence point between progress and preservation.

The explosive growth of satellite mega-constellations, led by Starlink and followed by OneWeb and Project Kuiper, is transforming low-Earth orbit into a congested and precarious environment. Nations, astronomers, and private actors are clashing over orbital lanes, collision risks, interference with scientific observation, and unequal access to space. Ultimately… who has the right to the skies?
As NASA and ESA prepare to bring Martian samples back to Earth, global concern is rising over potential mass biological contamination (both from Mars to Earth and from Earth to Mars.) Existing planetary-protection guidelines are non-binding, and no nation has ever handled extraterrestrial material with possible biological activity. Delegates of COPUOS will tackle these extraordinary challenges along with issues so novel and uncharted that your decisions here could set the precedent for how humanity explores the future, final frontier.