As commercial entities move beyond Earth’s orbit, the focus shifts from avoiding collisions to establishing “rules of the road” for an eventual multi-billion dollar marketplace. This requires a level of technical precision that often falls through the cracks of traditional policy silos. Despite the absence of a formal law school at Georgia Tech, the Nunn School has carved out a niche by using technical data to inform international legal standards.
Central to this effort is reframing space as a logistical challenge in addition to a scientific one.
Associate Professor Mariel Borowitz and her Guggenheim School colleague Brian Gunter have developed a computer simulation of objects in space that allows them to test out right-of-way rules.. The Virtual Environment for Space Traffic Analysis (VESTA) can help experts understand how different types of rules would impact spacecraft operators in different countries, for example, informing the types of agreements that might be necessary to put such rules in place.
Borowitz has also worked with Aerospace School colleague, Koki Ho. His work on the logistics of space considers terrestrial models from giants such as Amazon and FedEx to orbit, treating planets as cities and trajectories as delivery routes. This “commodity flow” approach to space logistics — including in-space refueling and inventory management — is designed to lower the barrier to entry for smaller, innovative startups that lack the massive infrastructure of legacy aerospace giants.
The economic stakes of space are already quantifiable for smaller players. In 2023, for instance, Borowitz co-authored a socioeconomic analysis of satellite data use in Nigeria, estimating that space-based mapping contributed up to $153 million in value to the country’s polio eradication efforts in a single year.
For these benefits to persist, however, the industry must address the reality of resource scarcity.
Assistant Professor Thomas González Roberts argues that there is precedent for physical space in particularly valuable corners of the space environment, like popular shells of low-Earth orbit or the north and south poles of the Moon to be recognized in legally binding treaties as finite, non-renewable natural resources. His research uses machine-learning techniques to hold satellite operators accountable to existing regulations, monitoring for “slot squatting” unusual on-orbit maneuvers that threaten the development of social norms of behavior in space to ensure these high-priority areas aren't hoarded by the few.
Property rights and resource claims are also increasingly important considerations.
To prepare for this, Nunn School scholars are identifying diplomatic flashpoints at the lunar south pole, where "safety zones" around desirable resources could easily be misinterpreted as national appropriation.
“The ‘Wild West’ is a myth, but the scarcity of these strategic high grounds is very real,” Roberts said. “One of our goals is to shed light on the actual use of valuable physical and spectral resources in space, to ensure that space-enabled technologies can be accessible to future actors who don’t benefit from early-mover advantages.”
This article is part of our feature on space policy in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in Georgia Tech's Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. To view the main story, click the button below.