Using Game Theory to Clean Up Space Debris
Link: https://theconversation.com/how-to-clean-up-space-debris-using-game-theory-50347
The presence of debris floating around in outer space can crucially impact the composition of spaceships and satellites. In order to guarantee the safe return of spacecrafts and the efficient use of satellites, the removal of these debris is imperative. Though it is a prevalent issue, there hasn’t been serious consideration of resolutions until recent. This lack of effort seems unreasonable considering that so many organizations may potentially be inconvenienced by the space debris. If even one organization decides to start the clean up, it would drastically benefit the other organizations. However, due to the high costs of such activities, there hasn’t been any preliminary attempts to remove the remains. In addition to the existing issues the debris present, they can also lead to more destruction in the future, in the form of collisions.
The authors of this article decided that it would be a great idea to analyze this situation using Game Theory. They plan to design a computer model to determine a way these organizations can collaboratively contribute to the space clean up efforts. The payoff matrices would specifically assess how different debris removal methods would affect each participant.The end goal of this analysis would be to motivate organizations to actually make efforts and reduce the likelihood of further complications caused by debris.
This article particularly interests me because it expanded my understanding of the topic of tragedy of the commons, covered in our course textbook. This tragedy is a situation where participants only take actions that are in their best interest, rather than thinking about how to benefit an entire group. This results in the overuse of a common resource and also in the increase of costs for all participants. To avoid this dilemma in this space debris problem, it is important to use a payoff matrix to strategically simplify the issue of cleaning up the debris. For this reason, a Game Theory analysis is needed to evaluate the risks and benefits for those who would participate in the removal efforts. After all, the more organizations that engage in cleaning up, the lower the cost would be for the individual organizations.