On 8 September 2025, I was lost in the vastness of Geneva, Switzerland. It was my first day in the city, where I was attending UNIDIR’s Outer Space Security Conference (OS25) as one of the youth video competition winners. I was determined to explore the Jet d’Eau, the old town and other famous locations I had heard about prior to my visit. I asked for directions, took a bus, and in a matter of minutes, I was lost. After a futile attempt to find my way, I pulled out my phone and loaded the navigation map. The application knew where I was and guided me through unfamiliar streets to my hotel. That very day, I did not consider the satellite connections enabling my navigation; I just believed that technology was working to keep me from getting lost in a foreign city.
This experience captures something essential about space security. We depend on space infrastructure in our daily lives, yet we rarely think about it. When these systems function correctly, they become invisible. But when something goes wrong, the impact ripples across economies and societies.
Storytelling can be used as both a communication tool and a governance mechanism for space security. When we make space threats tangible and perceptible, we show stakeholders like farmers and entrepreneurs the importance of orbital stability and create the foundation for enforcement mechanisms and safeguards. A major theme discussed at OS25 was the excellent work that the space security community has done in identifying threats and proposing frameworks. What we need now is to make those frameworks real for the billions of people who depend on them, and to put the requisite safeguards in place.
Why space security matters now
Space infrastructure drives modern life in ways most people never recognize. Satellites enable navigation, financial transactions, weather forecasting and countless other global needs. In my home country of Nigeria, a small tailoring business owner uses her mobile phone for financial transactions, tracking deliveries and navigating the congested Lagos traffic using apps enabled by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). She might have never thought of herself as a space technology user, but she absolutely is. If GNSS signals were disrupted, her business would grind to a halt. She would not receive payments nor be able to plan deliveries and navigate efficiently. The satellite systems enabling her livelihood feel distant and abstract, yet they are as essential as the electricity powering her sewing machine.
One key lesson I took from the technology demonstration at OS25 were the words of Dr Peter Martinez who highlighted the growing population of active satellites in space as a challenge. His perspective was supported by other speakers who shared their concerns about orbital debris, dual-use technologies and the increasing complexity of managing a domain that was once scarcely occupied but now hosts a fleet of commercial space actors. As Kees van Der Pols emphasized at the conference, space sustainability is something we need to work on right now, not as a future concern, but as an immediate priority. If we continue taking the orbital environment for granted today, it could become unusable tomorrow unless positive action is not taken.
Addressing the communication gap
During my lightning talk at OS25, I stated that when people think about space in Nigeria, they often think about astronauts and aliens or movies like Star Wars and Interstellar. Dr Melissa de Zwart raised an important question during Panel VI that piqued my interest: Does the farmer who uses space technology consider himself to be part of the space industry? In her response, she stated that they might not consider themselves to be, but they are. That observation showcases a fundamental problem. Space security discussions happen in conference rooms in Geneva, but the real stakeholders are everywhere else.
The essence of this gap is that governance requires legitimacy, and legitimacy requires understanding. When the vast majority of space users do not understand their dependence on orbital infrastructure, they cannot participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect them. Without this understanding, space security frameworks risk becoming disconnected from the people they are meant to protect, undermining both public support and effective implementation.
This gap persists partly because of how people experience space technology. During Panel I, Dr Laetitia Cesari noted that technology is not only an opportunity but it also exposes us to challenges. The opportunity and convenience are what most people experience without understanding the vulnerabilities. People are not aware of what could go wrong, so they do not engage with conversations on how to protect these systems that significantly impact them.
Making governance real through stories
Storytelling plays a critical role in governance as the narratives we share, shape what people perceive as urgent, what they believe is solvable, and what they are willing to support politically. Research in science communication shows that narratives have a “privileged status” in human cognition because they are processed more efficiently than logical-scientific formats, recalled more accurately and are intrinsically persuasive. When complex scientific issues are translated into relatable narratives, public understanding improves and political will strengthens. For space security, this means technical expertise alone cannot drive public engagement or policy support. Narratives become not only appropriate, but essential.
In 2023, I coordinated the largest campus cleanup in University of Benin history, gathering over 400 volunteers and raising more than ₦1,000,000 in sponsorships. That was not achieved by lecturing people about waste management policy alone. We used visual storytelling to show them what our campus could look like, connecting abstract environmental goals to the pride of being part of something transformative. This made the problem visible and the solution achievable.
For space security, storytelling can serve three essential functions:
1. Making threats understandable
During Panel II at OS25, Dr Guoyu Wang highlighted three fundamental elements for defining space threats. These include:
(1) intent, referring to deliberate acts;
(2) behavior, encompassing both actions and inactions;
(3) adverse impact, meaning any form or potential of harm such as material or non-material damage.
However, to communicate these effectively to non-technical stakeholders, we must ask what adverse impact from intentional behavior in space actually means for someone in Lagos or Nairobi? It could mean an ATM stops working because the satellites enabling financial transactions are jammed. It could mean an Uber driver cannot find its client because GNSS signals are disrupted. It could also mean flights are grounded because air traffic control loses satellite navigation, or that farmers cannot optimize irrigation because precision agriculture data disappears.
Stories highlight that these threats were real all along, even when space security oftentimes seems far away and disconnected from our daily activities. Stories connect abstract policy debates to lived experience.
2. Broadening the stakeholder map
The farmer in Dr de Zwart’s example exposes another challenge where most space users are invisible to themselves. Many everyday stakeholders of space technologies do not follow multilateral discussions or UN forums on space security.
For effective communication to work, we must present the full complexity of these issues honestly. We cannot simply scare people with worst-case scenarios, as doing so risks breeding apathy rather than action, or worse, driving responses that create security dilemmas rather than solving them. We also cannot pretend that the status quo is adequate, as this risks fostering complacency and undermining the urgency for collective action. This is why intentional and honest storytelling is needed, because it provides a balance by showing real users navigating real risks and contributing to real solutions.
3. Building political will through layered governance
During Panel III, Clive Hughes outlined a possible path forward observing that legally binding and non-legally binding instruments must work in tandem. I believe it was a recognition that enforcement does not mean only hard law but also creating multiple, mutually reinforcing accountability mechanisms that work together.
Here, storytelling plays a crucial role by enabling layered governance through the building of public demand for both formal rules and informal norms. When people understand what is at stake, they support legislation. When they see themselves as stakeholders, they adopt responsible practices. When people recognize their collective dependence on space infrastructure for daily life, national security and economic stability, they participate in building collective security.
In the course of Panel V, Sarah Erickson warned that if we allow nuclear challenges to dominate the space security conversation, we risk sidelining other important issues like sustainability. Her concern reflects a real danger that discussions can become too abstract or too dominated by high politics that they lose connection to the everyday stakes that motivate broader engagement. Storytelling can rebalance priorities by showing that sustainability, debris mitigation, traffic management and peaceful uses of space are not separate from security.
Shifting from narrative to action
My analysis of the sector reveals four key recommendations that the space security community, governments, international organizations, civil society and industry can adopt to strengthen public engagement in space security governance.
- Invest in accessible narratives: the space security community, including governmental agencies, academic institutions and civil society organizations, can create short documentaries, social media campaigns and educational materials that showcase how everyday users depend on space technology. These narratives should demonstrate real dependencies and real vulnerabilities without resorting to fear tactics.
- Develop layered communication strategies: when briefing legislators or engaging civil society, it is beneficial to present not only threat assessments and policy options but also demonstrate who is affected, how they are affected and why action matters now. Policy documents could include case studies and testimonials from actual users. Technical reports might open with concrete scenarios that illustrate the real-world consequences of the issues being discussed.
- Pilot local outreach projects: it would be beneficial for the technical community to work with agricultural cooperatives, transportation networks, educational institutions and small businesses to demonstrate their connection to space systems and invite their participation in governance discussions. These pilots should not be one-way information sessions but genuine dialogues where stakeholders can voice concerns, ask questions and contribute perspectives that policy experts might miss. The goal is to expand the circle of people who feel ownership over space security outcomes.
- Support creative media initiatives: governments and civil society organizations can fund filmmakers, journalists, podcasters and digital creators who can reach audiences outside the conventional reach of the policy sphere. Trusting creative professionals to translate technical complexity into compelling narrative might mean documentaries that follow satellite operators through a day of work, podcasts that interview space technology users, or social media campaigns that visualize the consequences of satellite system failures. Creative storytelling should not replace technical communication, but complement it by reaching different audiences through different channels.
Storytelling is how we build that foundation. It should be done alongside technical expertise, not instead of it; in support of diplomatic negotiations, not instead of them; enabling law and policy, instead of replacing them. Storytelling transforms space security from an abstract policy concern into a tangible reality that affects everyday lives. When stakeholders see themselves in the narrative, they move from passive beneficiaries to active participants in building the governance frameworks necessary to protect our shared orbital infrastructure.
Adeboye Malumi is a legal graduate and media strategist who has developed storytelling for social impact, translating international policy into accessible media and cinematic narratives. He is the founder of Photo Logic and his work focuses on the intersection of international law, global governance and digital advocacy through media and film for emerging regions.
This commentary is a special feature of UNIDIR’s Youth Engagement initiative. The author, Adeboye Malumi selected as a winner of the Outer Space Security Conference 2025 Youth Campaign. The views expressed in the publication are the sole responsibility of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the UN, UNIDIR nor their staff members or sponsors.