Funding for Space Traffic Management (STM)

The Short Story

Earth's orbits, by NASA estimates, already carry over 100 million objects. Whilst the Celestrak boxscore shows over 6,600 space launches spanning 60+ years, the NASA historical fragmentation report shows over 400 debris generating events, including a handful of collisions. Not to mention that 19% of tracked space objects reside in or pass through Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), where GPS and other GNSS constellations are situated. The same GPS that benefited the private sector by $1.4T from 1985 to 2017 and where a disruption could have cost up to $1B per day. Today, the economic impact would certainly be higher to our $29.2 trillion U.S. Gross Domestic Product, underscoring its critical role in economic stability and national security.

Our Future

Alarmingly, in the next 8 years, this tragic legacy shall be eclipsed as 17 times more space missions are slated for launch. Reactively, The White House has published the SPD-3 STM Policy and an Orbital Debris R&D Plan. Meanwhile, according to NASA’s OIG Orbital Debris Audit, NASA has achieved little to no progress and lacks the initiative and urgency to lead development or acquisition of Active Debris Removal technology, despite Congressional and Presidential directives. And Space Force generals have explicitly stated their strategy to outsource debris removal, while the Office of Space Commerce has reiterated the economic urgency to Congress.

Critical Mass

While the effects of space debris work on a much slower timescale than a nuclear fission reaction, once it reaches critical mass there is no way to stop the number of collisions from exploding out of control. We have known about this predicament since 1978, so why are we waiting to perform Active Debris Removal (ADR)? Congress has spent billions on putting more eyes on the sky in order to characterize the orbital environment, which commercial companies are now performing. Developing ADR technology should have started LONG ago.

Tick, Tick, Tick

As this recipe for disaster begins to emerge, how are investors in the estimated future $3T global space economy going to react when space objects collide or fall from the sky more frequently? What will you do if your phone, or other internet device, lost connectivity, messaging, weather reports, navigation, TV, video conferencing, banking, ATM, credit card? What if the power grid went down temporarily? Do you have a plan? Tick, tick, tick.

Common Sense Partnership

Governance Framework

Bringing ADR under STM make sense, like U.S. National Park Service overseeing trash abatement.
This STM partnership framework is described in more detail in Common Sense Solution to Orbital Debris.
Establishes a governance framework to safeguard our critical orbital infrastructure.
Enables vulnerability assessments to prioritize mission planning.
Allows for development and oversight of ADR technologies.
Any STM Service Provider can leverage the STM Act of 2025 to acquire funding from their tax paying contributors to accomplish their STM objective.

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Common Sense Funding Mechanism

STM Act of 2025

For nearly half a century, the brightest minds have slowly crept toward Space Traffic Management (STM) and orbital debris solutions, without the primary requirement...MONEY. At some point (now), characterizing the orbital environment must drive ADR. We should not wait until 'blood on the streets' dictates action. We are smarter than that. In fact, we have known long enough about the orbital environment to begin ADR and there is a Top50 List that identifies which objects to remove first.

OrbitGuardians has drafted the STM Act of 2025.
"We the People" must get this legislated to provide funding for the creation of the STM industry.
Upon POTUS' signature, contributions from U.S. taxpayers and industry are recognized as tax credits to directly reduce the amount of tax that contributors owe, while funds are funneled to STM Service Providers to tackle policy, SDA/SSA, mitigation, and ADR objectives.
$3 tax credit for $1 taxpayer contribution, or, $3M tax credit for $1M contributed, in 1st 3 years.
Limitations prevent gaming the IRS Code.
These incentivized contributions increase speed of industry startup.
Contributions then used for identifying orbital carrying capacity, space traffic footprint, risk assessments, prioritizations, policy, space situational awareness, mitigation best practices, standards, and active debris removal.

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