HMM: Could a $200K bond for satellites paid before launch prevent a space junk disaster in orbit? Here’s why some scientists think so. Scientists aren’t exactly experts at regulatory matters. This isn’t promising:

“Low Earth orbit looks like lots of other resources that we have trashed as economic actors,” Daniel Kaffine, a professor of environmental and resource economics at University of Colorado Boulder, told Space.com.

(1) Resources are generally more trashed by governmental actors. Most space debris created in recent years has come from Chinese and Russian military posturing. For that matter, the environmental record of governments in general is much worse than that of “economic actors.” See, e.g., the Aral Sea, the Gold King Mine/Animas River EPA spill, etc.

(2) I question the value of space regulatory advice from a “professor of environmental and resource economics.” Nor is such a person a “scientist.”

(3) That said, the bond idea isn’t a bad one except that (a) there’s nobody empowered to impose the requirement; and (b) there’s nobody empowered to administer it.

I recommend space salvage. The Outer Space Treaty is a barrier, but we could probably end run it via the Artemis Accords.