There is a major disconnect between the current funding approaches for "common good" space projects and the ability to build a company to serve that good. The conventional investment paradigm of investing if one can get 10-100x returns in 3-5 years doesn't fit the realities of today's space development process. This is nowhere more obvious than in the realm of on-orbit debris, a long-term project that requires innovative solutions that are expensive to implement.
Recently, NASA published two studies looking at the costs and benefits of addressing Orbital Debris. This series of posts will look at the studies from a slightly different perspective: that of the "space startup" trying to address the issue. The primary focus will be the second study which addressed many of the problematic issues with the first. One of the interesting "results" of the first study was that it introduced and recommended laser-based orbit modification as a solution that had not been previously considered. Sadly, I think that study was taken less seriously than it warranted because it focussed too much on that solution, a solution that is unlikely to be implementable due to its weapon like nature, that the other results were dismissed. The second study took a new look at the laser concept and compared it to cost-benefit assessments of other approaches to reduce the risk of on-orbit debris. In doing so, the second study provided a veritable treasure trove of data to analyze and use in ways that can truly benefit the on-orbit debris focussed startup community.
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