Space debris threatens to destroy valuable space
infrastructure, but damages from debris are not an
inevitability. The scientific community has ideas for how
to prevent the creation of new debris and limit the impact
of pre-existing debris, but it will take government action to
see that vision through. This essay unpacks how we know
what we know, in service of ultimately discussing how
policy-makers can use predictions of the long-term risks
posed by satellites and debris on the orbital environment
to more effectively prescribe behavior for operators.
Financial incentives for sustainability, including taxation
and cap-and-trade systems, have the potential to greatly
benefit the safety and reliability of space missions, but
they carry a variety of political and economic challenges,
particularly at the international level. Now is a critical time to
determine a policy strategy for debris management, because
negotiations in the near-term may set valuable precedents
for controlling the next century of debris proliferation.
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