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Orbital Use Fees Proposed As the Most Effective Way to Solve the Space Junk Problem:
The most effective way to solve the space junk problem, according to a new study, is not to capture debris or deorbit old satellites: it's an international agreement to charge operators "orbital-use fees" for every satellite put into orbit.
Orbital use fees would also increase the long-run value of the space industry, said economist Matthew Burgess, a CIRES Fellow and co-author of the new paper. By reducing future satellite and debris collision risk, an annual fee rising to about $235,000 per satellite would quadruple the value of the satellite industry by 2040, he and his colleagues concluded in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Space is a common resource, but companies aren't accounting for the cost their satellites impose on other operators when they decide whether or not to launch," said Burgess, who is also an assistant professor in Environmental Studies and an affiliated faculty member in Economics at the University of Colorado Boulder. "We need a policy that lets satellite operators directly factor in the costs their launches impose on other operators."
[...] A better approach to the space debris problem, Rao and his colleagues found, is to implement an orbital-use fee — a tax on orbiting satellites. "That's not the same as a launch fee," Rao said, "Launch fees by themselves can't induce operators to deorbit their satellites when necessary, and it's not the launch but the orbiting satellite that causes the damage."
[...] "In our model, what matters is that satellite operators are paying the cost of the collision risk imposed on other operators," said Daniel Kaffine, professor of economics and RASEI Fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder and co-author on the paper.
Reference:
Akhil Rao, Matthew G. Burgess and Daniel Kaffine, Orbital-use fees could more than quadruple the value of the space industry", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1921260117
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday June 02 2020, @06:20PM (8 children)
You are already paying quite a lot of taxes to manage this stuff. NASA and ESA run ground-based monitoring stations to monitor earth satellites. Government-owned satellites have to pack additional fuel in case they need to avoid other objects.
To put it in economic terms, your taxes, if you pay tax in Europe or US, are subsidising the satellite industry.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 02 2020, @09:32PM (7 children)
There is no point in explaining any of that to the A/C's who post using the term "leftist".
They have no clue what they're whittering on about, and don't care about your facts. Reality is just some Democrat conspiracy to them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:36PM (1 child)
I consider myself to be a radical leftist, what do you believe I should call myself? I'm not a member of a political party, so how do I describe myself?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday June 02 2020, @11:45PM
Tell you what A/C, you call yourself whatever you like, OK?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @10:54PM (1 child)
Progressive Democrats have such a sharp handle on reality they thought making a sacrificial offer of a *police station* to the rioters/arsonists would make them stop rioting and committing arson. Lack of police in the streets would stop the criminality.
WTF???
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2020, @02:00AM
Someone guessed you are Fusty, but I'm guessing you're EF and just got tired of people instantly dismissing shit you say. Then again, there is no shortage of angry incels on the net so only you get to know what flavor of Comanche Protection Ornithopter you are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @11:52PM
No matter how loudly you scream.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday June 03 2020, @01:36AM (1 child)
Agreed, the leftist part is troll.
But the concept of special interest groups pandering to Congress to make law to compel yet another burden on someone to fund someone else is not "fighting for me" .
But then, if we were all paying attention to what the pens of our legislators were doing, not a one of them would have ever seen another day of public service after passing the DMCA.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday June 03 2020, @03:12AM
Well yes. America has the best government money can buy.