Crowded Orbits

Conflicts and Cooperation in space

James Clay Moltz QB 500.25 M67 2014

A recent and decent discussion of the politics, commercialization, and militarization of space.

Moltz is more optimistic about the imminence of commercial space than I am - the milestone dates he gives are press release dates, not sober technological estimates. But this was published before the Virgin Galactic crash, the Falcon explosion, and the continued downrange-barge landing failures, so optimism was untempered with the inevitable setbacks that occur on the way to success.

Moltz dislikes George W.'s withdrawal from international agreements, and B. Obama's re-engagements.

Moltz supports the Dec 2007 Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. They may be be toothless hot air, IMHO, without mandatory provisions for deorbit or graveyard orbits.

P115:SDA, Space Data Association, database of geostationary orbit satellite locations

• UN Registration Convention, basic information about spacecraft, partial compliance.
• US Joint Space Operations Center
• Shares concerns about cubesat collisions.

A decent review http://www.au.af.mil/au/afri/review_full.asp?id=686 from Wright Pat AFB.

The author's page at the Naval Postgraduate School.