You believe the near-term action in space is commercial-strategic: asteroid mining, autonomous orbital industry, strategic-orbital infrastructure including military constellations, and the satellite-and-launch business that actually runs space today. Humans are largely unnecessary; the action is robotic and revenue-generating.
Sub-flavors within Orbital Mercantilism
Asteroid-Mining01 / 04
Planetary Resources legacy; resource extraction in deep space
Space Hawks02 / 04
Golden Dome, Starshield, NRO mega-constellations; the military-orbital posture; strategic dominance in cislunar space
Industrial Pioneer03 / 04
Bezos's original framing: autonomous machines build the cislunar economy before humans arrive
Operator04 / 04
Post-ideological commercial executor, ULA and satellite-operator culture; whatever the contract pays for, run it well
Public figures placed here
Jeff Bezos (early Blue Origin)2000-2010
Original framing: machines build cislunar economy that humans later inhabit.
Chance Saltzman
USSF Chief of Space Operations. Cleanest contemporary Space Hawks placement.
Michael Kratsios
Synthesis figure for the strategic-commercial-nationalist cluster. Operational reframing of NASA mission as strategic/economic infrastructure.
Tory Bruno
ULA CEO. Post-ideological commercial executor who runs the orbital economy without ideological commitments. Anchors the Operator flavor.
Disagree with the placement?