Connecting Diverse Data to Address Emerging Space Sector Challenges

Abstract

Innovative new technologies and business models are continuing to reduce the cost of launch and manufacture of spacecraft, paving the way for increased participation in the space industry by corporations, start-ups, and emergent space economies. As Earth-orbital environments become increasingly populated, Space Traffic Management capabilities will be key to coordinating international space activities. To preserve the long-term sustainability of the outer space environment, new approaches that can leverage diverse data from multiple information sources to generate new insights are needed to inform decision making in the space sector. This chapter describes the current population of space objects (including satellites and space debris), details existing approaches to Space Traffic Management, identifies emerging challenges for the space sector and proposes the use of graph databases as an analytic tool to inform decision making in the space domain.