The Orbital Commons
Advance shared situational awareness, debris prevention and remediation, responsible licensing, and fair allocation of orbital risk and cost.
Proposed outputCommons standard · risk ledger · remediation compact
Our focus / Space development
A shared frontier.
Explore farther. Protect the environments, knowledge and public capabilities that make discovery possible.
Explore the agendaDiscovery carries responsibility.
Space is already public infrastructure. The question is whether its next era will be governed as a shared environment, or captured as a bottleneck.
Space development reaches into daily life through observation, communications and scientific knowledge. It also changes a shared environment that no single operator can keep safe alone. Our proposed agenda connects exploration to the responsibilities that come before launch and the public value that should endure afterward. Scientific discovery deserves room to pursue unknowns; operational services need clear evidence that they help people make better decisions.
Research & proposal stage. No current grants, funded partnerships or service delivery are claimed.
The frontier is a shared environment.
The intersecting rings in this study occupy the same space. They suggest a central condition of exploration: one mission’s freedom depends on other missions acting with care. Stewardship belongs inside the ambition to discover.
New in the Policy Lab · September 2026
The SPACE Act.
Thirty-one titles connecting public science, responsible exploration, skilled people, and future generations. Read the expanded bill alongside the Foundation’s fiscal, legal, and engineering review.
Explore the bill and analysis ↗The proposed next chapter
Connect exploration to public value.
Three proposed workstreams would connect responsible operations, useful Earth intelligence and the capability to participate in scientific discovery.
A successful mission leaves more than a trace in the sky.
Priorities for development01Make mission responsibility visible
Operators share physical risks while holding different information, resources and expectations.
Proposed work
Develop a model mission-responsibility record covering operator contacts, conjunction coordination, debris prevention, end-of-life plans and unresolved liabilities. Examine what can be independently verified.
What we would measure
Reporting completeness, response readiness and verified disposal outcomes. Publishing an intention is different from demonstrating safe behaviour over a mission’s life.
02Turn observation into action
A map or an alert offers little protection without an institution able to interpret it and respond.
Proposed work
Compare two grounded Earth-observation applications. For each, name the decision owner, local validation, response resources and correction process before assessing the value of the data.
What we would measure
Missed events, false alerts, decision time and independently checked outcomes. Technical accuracy alone does not establish a social benefit.
03Share scientific capability
Open downloads are only a beginning. Institutions also need expertise, tools and time to use mission data.
Proposed work
Propose shared analysis facilities, maintained documentation and locally led research partnerships. Preserve exploratory science alongside applications, with distinct criteria for learning and delivery.
What we would measure
Recurring independent use, reproducibility and useful capability retained by participating institutions, including beyond the initial grant or collaboration.
Explore, understand and steward.
Space development will shape scientific discovery, climate intelligence, infrastructure, security, culture, and the future scale of human civilization. True Tomorrow works to keep that frontier ambitious, peaceful, transparent, and oriented toward public value.
Earth Intelligence
Connect public-interest observation to climate resilience, disaster readiness, agriculture, water, public health, and open scientific capacity.
Proposed outputPublic data pathway · use case · access protocol
Responsible Exploration
Develop mission standards for peaceful use, planetary protection, scientific value, resource stewardship, safety, and benefit sharing.
Proposed outputMission charter · protection standard · public-value test
Public Space Capability
Broaden access to space science, technical learning, shared facilities, mission data, and meaningful participation across institutions and places.
Proposed outputLearning network · open archive · participation pathway
Responsibility before launch.
Advance when the conditions are met. These are proposed stages, not announced projects or deadlines.
- Understand
Choose the public question
Define the scientific or operational question, the communities affected and what existing capabilities already provide. Avoid beginning with a technology in search of a use.
- Develop
Design the responsibility record
Set out validation, operational contacts, risk and end-of-life arrangements. Build access, maintenance and local analysis capacity into the proposed programme.
- Review
Review the whole mission
Use independent evidence to assess performance, learning and environmental responsibilities. Share failures and limitations as well as successful results.
Scientific exploration and operational services need different measures. Neither technical capability nor accuracy alone justifies automated decisions about people’s rights.
Earth observation becomes useful through people, institutions and decisions on the ground.
Judge what remains useful.
The proposed test is lasting scientific and public capability, alongside responsible use of the environments in which missions operate.
- Stewardship
- Are debris prevention, coordination and end-of-life obligations understandable and verifiable?
- Decision value
- Does an observation change an actionable decision, with local validation and a way to correct errors?
- Open knowledge
- Can others inspect methods, reproduce findings and make legitimate use of results?
- Durable capability
- Can participating institutions maintain and use the tools after the initial project ends?
Proposed measures, not reported outcomes. Baselines, targets and methods would be agreed with participating communities before any pilot.
Keep ambition accountable.
How the work would be developed, and what it must protect.
Our approach
- Map the environment
Treat the physical, scientific, legal, economic, and security context as one connected mission system.
- Name the public value
Define the benefit, beneficiaries, knowledge return, and public obligations before a mission scales.
- Govern the externalities
Assign responsibility for debris, contamination, congestion, extraction, failure, and long-term stewardship.
- Return the knowledge
Make useful data, standards, lessons, and learning pathways available beyond the originating mission.
Policy agenda
The policy agenda centers peaceful use, public-interest orbital infrastructure, shared situational awareness, planetary protection, debris reduction, emergency coordination, open science, and fair responsibility for emerging space economies.
SPACE Act of 2026Peace is the baseline
Civil, scientific, and humanitarian uses should not become a quiet pathway for escalation, coercive surveillance, or conflict.
Leave no invisible debt
Mission economics must include debris, remediation, contamination, congestion, and decommissioning—not shift them to future operators.
Science before spectacle
Exploration should create durable knowledge and capability, not only symbolic milestones or extractive first-mover advantage.
No frontier without responsibility
Novelty does not suspend environmental care, rights, safety, public accountability, or duties to future generations.
Further reading
Look beyond the launch.
The Orbital Commons
A sourced evidence brief on congestion, debris, shared situational awareness, licensing, remediation finance, and the normative base for sustainable space activity.
In-depth publicationSpace Innovation for Sustainable EarthOpen research questions
- How should public institutions govern orbital infrastructure as it becomes essential civic infrastructure?
- What standards keep exploration compatible with planetary protection and long-term safety?
- How can space research serve climate resilience, public education, and global cooperation on Earth?
Grounded in public evidence
UNOOSA’s voluntary sustainability guidelines and NASA’s calibration and validation guidance inform the proposed agenda. These references are not endorsements of a Foundation programme.
Bring a public question to the frontier.
Researchers, mission teams, public agencies and local data users can help define useful applications, responsible exploration and more widely shared scientific capability.
Contribute to the work