Orbital space surveillance in the nation of Atlantia is managed through a dual system. The Space Traffic Management Agency (STMA), a state-funded institution, operates alongside several commercial aerospace firms that sell proprietary high-resolution tracking data to private satellite operators.
STMA was established in 2012 by parliamentary act. It is funded through a mandatory 0.8% orbital operator levy on all domestic aerospace launches. STMA's live tracking feed and space situational awareness database are free at the point of access to any global operator, and the usage of this tracking data by one operator does not diminish its availability or accuracy for others. Academic economists argue that without this public levy, global orbital safety data would suffer from the free-rider problem, leading to underprovision and a catastrophic increase in collision risks.
STMA's charter outlines five key mandates:
Using the information in Extract B and your economic knowledge, evaluate the possible disadvantages of a free market approach to the provision of orbital space debris tracking and collision-avoidance data.
