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File size of daily orbital parameters distributed from the NASA space-track website. This is proportional to the number of satellites tracked each day, or at least listed as tracked each day.

I’ve been trying to recall all the space-derived information the US government provides to the world for free. The reason I’ve been thinking about this is because of the recent drop in satellite tracks the US provides through NASA’s space-track web page that was first point out on this blog. While I’m still waiting to find out what caused this, it certainly appears to be a bookkeeping “error” that should be fixed soon. First, of course, is the catalog of all objects in space big enough track, which most analysts place as bigger than 10 cm in diameter. (It’s not all of them, of course. The US classifies some of its military satellites; something many of us have alternatively laughed at or complained about depending on our mood.) I understand that everybody from private companies to other countries use these files to move their satellites to avoid collisions. (To that extend, even a bookkeeping problem, while not effecting the US military, has seriously affected space situational awareness.) What is the economic value of that service, I wonder?

Then there is GPS. That is starting to filter into every single pocket in the US with a proliferation of smartphones containing a GPS chip. I keep on seeing all the wonderful things that will do for the consumer from knowing where your friends are to what’s on sale as you walk by the store. Perhaps it will even be used to speed up air travel in the US by allowing planes travel directly to their destinations as opposed to sticking to the “roads” that are easier to control with radar. That, I think, I will personally find valuable but I cannot easily assign an economic value to that. Europe is trying to break into this market with its Galileo constellation but they seem to want to charge people a license fee for each circuit produced. (Perhaps they have dropped this?) I’ve never understood the business model behind Galileo; it’s very hard to compete with free.

Then there are the ubiquitous satellite weather photos. Do people pay for those? What about LANDSAT images? Do people pay for those? Communications satellites have been privatized because there is an easy way to charge for them. But the other contributions from space to the economy have already been very great and new ways are continuing to be found for exploiting them. When the Obama administration thinks about building up the infrastructure, perhaps they should really consider the near-Earth space infrastructure too? If readers think of other services the US provides for free from its space assets or even new space services that might be created, I invite you to list them.