Presenter: The Economic Impact of Mitigating Orbital Debris

Martin K. Zhu, Ph.D.

Martin Zhu is a senior economist with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where he focuses on economic issues affecting orbital debris mitigation, commercial space launch and reentry licensing, and collective risks. He regularly conducts regulatory impact analyses for commercial space and aviation rulemakings.
He is a public speaker on economic policy and space safety. He presented his paper at the 11th IAASS as a virtue conference during COVID-19 and the 9th IAASS Conference at the Toulouse Space Center in France. He was a panel speaker at the Satellite Conference 2020 and the same conference in 2019 in Washington, DC.
He is an author on space safety and economics. He authored double-blinded peer-reviewed papers:
(1) Method of a Break-Even Analysis of Orbital Debris Mitigation and Remediation Costs (The Global Journal of Research in Engineering (GJRE) Volume 23 Issue 1 Version 1.0, June 2023)
(2) A break-even analysis of orbital debris and space preservation through monetization (Journal of Space Safety Engineering, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2022, Pages 600–611)
(3) Economic Fundamentals of Mitigating Orbital Debris (Presentation at the 9th IAASS Conference on October 19, 2017)
(4) Impacts of External Shocks on Nations' Policy Responses and Economic Growth—World Economic Synchronization (Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 2008)
Previously, Dr. Zhu was a senior regulatory economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Within his role, he developed expertise in forecasting, cost-benefit analysis, and risk assessment applied to rulemakings for food safety and general laws of taxation. He reviewed economic papers by responding with comments and suggestions to the authors.
He started his professional career in academia as an assistant professor teaching economics and business disciplines.
He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Northeastern University, an MBA degree from Oklahoma City University, and a BA degree in statistics from Xiamen University.