Space Is the New Wild West: Asteroid Mining, AI & the Race Beyond Earth - Ep 91 - Tales of Abundance

<p>Space is running out of room. Right now, 16,000 satellites and over a million pieces of debris are orbiting Earth — and a single paint chip traveling at 17,500 mph can destroy a billion-dollar spacecraft. David Godwin built the solution.</p><p>David is the co-founder and chairman of Slingshot Aerospace — the world&#39;s most advanced space situational awareness company. They call it &quot;air traffic control for orbit, but with a brain.&quot; In this episode, he breaks down exactly what&#39;s happening in the orbital Wild West above our heads, why the asteroid mining gold rush is closer than most people realize, and what it actually takes to build a company in the space industry when you&#39;re not an aerospace engineer.</p><p>What you&#39;ll discover:</p><p>• How Slingshot Aerospace&#39;s AI-powered sensor network watches everything moving in orbit — and tells satellites not just to move, but exactly how far to move to stay safe for days ahead</p><p>• Why 1.2 million pieces of untracked space debris could eventually &quot;landlock&quot; humanity on Earth — and why a single breakup event can trigger a chain reaction</p><p>• The asteroid mining gold rush: why it&#39;s not science fiction, what rare metals and water ice on the moon mean for Earth&#39;s scarcity problems, and why Starship changes everything</p><p>• How a software entrepreneur with zero aerospace background co-founded a space company — and what &quot;space DNA&quot; you actually need to break in</p><p>• The real race to the moon: China, the US, prime lunar real estate, and the &quot;blind spot in cislunar space&quot; that could shift global power</p><p>Timestamps:</p><p>[00:00] How much stuff is actually in space?</p><p>[01:10] David&#39;s background — entrepreneur, not an engineer</p><p>[02:57] First companies: video games, enterprise SaaS, five businesses in</p><p>[04:26] Where did your interest in space come from?</p><p>[05:49] What is Slingshot Aerospace? Air traffic control for orbit</p><p>[08:47] How one paint chip can destroy a billion-dollar satellite</p><p>[09:44] How fast is space debris actually moving? (17,500 mph)</p><p>[11:47] Crisscrossing orbits — 3D collisions explained</p><p>[14:17] What happens when two satellites are on a collision course?</p><p>[16:51] Geopolitics in space: the Wild West of orbit</p><p>[17:38] Asteroid mining and the new gold rush</p><p>[19:06] Space resources: water, oxygen, rocket fuel, rare metals</p><p>[20:25] Things David thought were science ficti