US Space Force Wants to Fund 'Space Junk'-Cleaning Startups (msn.com) 41
America's Department of Defense "wants to clean up space...at least the increasingly polluted region in low Earth orbit, where thousands of bits of debris, spent rocket stages and dead satellites whiz uncontrollably," writes the Washington Post.
They're reporting that America's Space Force has now launched a program to give companies seed money to develop space-cleaning technology to eventually demo in space (starting with awards of $250,000 that rise as high as $1.5 million). The name of the program: Orbital Prime. The issue also has gotten the attention of the White House. Its Office of Science and Technology Policy recently held a meeting asking for input from space industry leaders about what to do about the problem. Speaker after speaker said that governments around the world need to fund these efforts to help create a market for companies to operate. They also said that it had become an imperative for the governments largely responsible for the problem in the first place. "If the U.S. Navy had had a derelict ship sitting in sovereign waters, creating a safety hazard, the U.S. Navy would go out and grab that ship," said Doug Loverro, a former top Pentagon and NASA space official. "And I'm not sure why we don't see the same responsibility for government for their derelict ships and their derelict bodies that are in space today."
Or as James Lowenthal, a professor of astronomy at Smith College in Michigan, put it: "Just as we rely on the government to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, we have to rely on the government to protect the resource and the global commons of low Earth orbit."
Europe and Britain have also begun to work toward cleaning up debris — a move that's long overdue, space industry experts say. ClearSpace, a Swiss company, has a contract with the European Space Agency to remove a large piece of debris — a symbol that the issue is finally being addressed. It proposes using a spacecraft with large arms that would grapple the debris like a Venus' flytrap. "This is why we're here. Because we think change is possible," said Luc Piguet, ClearSpace's co-founder and CEO. "And we think we can build a space industry that operates with a different model, where maintenance is just a normal part of it."
"This debris and associated congestion threaten the longer sustainability of the space domain," said Space Force's vice chief of space operations, in a video advertising the seed-money program, adding that America's Department of Defense tracks 40,000 objects in orbit the size of a fist or larger, with at least 10 times as many smaller objects the Pentagon can't reliably track.
They're reporting that America's Space Force has now launched a program to give companies seed money to develop space-cleaning technology to eventually demo in space (starting with awards of $250,000 that rise as high as $1.5 million). The name of the program: Orbital Prime. The issue also has gotten the attention of the White House. Its Office of Science and Technology Policy recently held a meeting asking for input from space industry leaders about what to do about the problem. Speaker after speaker said that governments around the world need to fund these efforts to help create a market for companies to operate. They also said that it had become an imperative for the governments largely responsible for the problem in the first place. "If the U.S. Navy had had a derelict ship sitting in sovereign waters, creating a safety hazard, the U.S. Navy would go out and grab that ship," said Doug Loverro, a former top Pentagon and NASA space official. "And I'm not sure why we don't see the same responsibility for government for their derelict ships and their derelict bodies that are in space today."
Or as James Lowenthal, a professor of astronomy at Smith College in Michigan, put it: "Just as we rely on the government to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, we have to rely on the government to protect the resource and the global commons of low Earth orbit."
Europe and Britain have also begun to work toward cleaning up debris — a move that's long overdue, space industry experts say. ClearSpace, a Swiss company, has a contract with the European Space Agency to remove a large piece of debris — a symbol that the issue is finally being addressed. It proposes using a spacecraft with large arms that would grapple the debris like a Venus' flytrap. "This is why we're here. Because we think change is possible," said Luc Piguet, ClearSpace's co-founder and CEO. "And we think we can build a space industry that operates with a different model, where maintenance is just a normal part of it."
"This debris and associated congestion threaten the longer sustainability of the space domain," said Space Force's vice chief of space operations, in a video advertising the seed-money program, adding that America's Department of Defense tracks 40,000 objects in orbit the size of a fist or larger, with at least 10 times as many smaller objects the Pentagon can't reliably track.
QUARK! (Score:3)
One of the dumbest, but classic, TV shows!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
The next mutation! (Score:3)
One of the best, but classic games [sierraclassicgaming.com] featuring the captain of a space garbage scow!
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Proven technology (Score:2)
China has recently demonstrated that this is doable...
Hyperbole as usual (Score:1)
Space above planet earth is just so vast, 10000 titanics in low orbit would still be unable to see each other.
Re:Hyperbole as usual (Score:4, Informative)
Space above planet earth is just so vast, 10000 titanics in low orbit would still be unable to see each other.
Using "ships" is a poor analogy. The problem is not the abandoned ships, but the millions of plastic bottles dumped in the ocean.
In space, the main problem is not defunct satellites, but nuts, bolts, chips of paint, and shrapnel from past collisions.
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consider.
kerbal space program.
a interesting way to demo ones solution.
but i think a laser mounted on a satellite pushing the junk down into the direction of earth should be at the high school level of mathematics
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Except any High Schooler that plays KSP knows an anti-normal force only changes the orbital eccentricity, retrograde reduces orbital radius.
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exactly.
hence the term.
push.
just a little tap and the object heads towards the atmosphere.
and it would be a cool looking show
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Then compare an orbiting nut or a bolt to a bullet. They're the same order of magnitude in mass and an order of magnitude faster. The collision will be at the difference in orbital velocities, which will be lower, but it's still something you could reasonably compare to rifle fire.
Anyway, what happened to tradition? Aren't people making invalid analogies supposed to use car analogies?
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Most Cubesats are deployed below 500 km and experience enough atmospheric drag to deorbit in a few months.
StarLink satellites are also in LEO where they will deorbit from drag a few years after their krypton boosters run out of fuel
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While space is vast, usable launch paths and viable orbits are very limited. Almost all of the space around the planet is basically useless for our current purposes. That is what's causing the problems, the trash is starting to become a minor problem in extremely useful and therefore popular orbits. They're not useless by any means, but trash must be actively and constantly monitored to avoid collisions with more valuable assets in orbit like ISS.
Space is a vacuum, right? (Score:5, Funny)
Just use a vacuum cleaner
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You watched Spaceballs one too many times?
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Fine, use a leaf blower then
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:-) Gee... thanks for the heads up!
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Just don't suck Earth's oyxgen like in https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]. ;)
SpaceX wins either way (Score:2)
This is the kind of project that is almost assumptively has to rely on the development of "cheap" launch platforms. The ClearSpace-1 mission mentioned is very cool but it's a one-and-done design, the disposal robot burns up with the trash. To do that even dozens of times requires both a design that is cheap to manufacture (thus likely cannot be weight engineered to nth degree) and a low cost to orbit launch vehichle.
Maybe these seed companies can make a design that fits on a small sat platform but
Re: SpaceX wins either way (Score:4, Interesting)
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This is the kind of project that is almost assumptively has to rely on the development of "cheap" launch platforms.
Not necessarily. Some proposals to deorbit debris use ground-based lasers to ablate the leading edge of objects, thus decelerating them enough to drop into a lower orbit where drag is higher.
Laser broom [wikipedia.org]
Did you read the classified ad? (Score:2)
Space debris cleaners wanted: Must have good aim and be able to grapple EOL sats that dodge grappler. Ability to withstand smell of dirty commies a must! 8 to 12 years experience of space debris clean up required and provide own launch vehicle. $40K/yr
I get the feeling they are trying to outsource this to India.
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Public money wasted to billionaires (Score:1)
Re:Public money wasted to billionaires (Score:4, Informative)
Why donâ(TM)t companies that pollute airspace clean their own junk, instead of taxpayer money paying for it ?
Because most of the problematic space junk was put there by governments.
Most commercial satellites are either in GEO (mostly not a problem) or in LEO where atmospheric drag will deorbit them in a few years. It is the mid-range that is the problem.
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An expensive computer from 20 years ago is worth nothing today.
The same is true with old satellites. They are garbage.
Most of the space debris is small objects, such as loose nuts and bolts, an astronaut's glove, paint chips, etc.
It makes no sense to burn thousands of liters of fuel to retrieve a screw.
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I agree, but even a screw traveling thousands of miles per hour is dangerous to orbiting satellites and astronauts , I am curious as to how it might be cheaply disposed of.
Shoot a laser at it while it is approaching. The laser ablates material off the leading edge, decelerating the screw, which then drops into a lower orbit where atmospheric drag completes the deorbit.
The laser can be either space-based or ground-based. A ground-based laser is less accurate so needs to be bigger, but is likely still cheaper because ... it is on the ground.
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Unintended consequences. (Score:2)
2029: Mommy, what's all the sparkly stuff in the sky?
Traom Space Development Company (Score:2)
That's the ideal company to approach for the first contract to remove space debris.
.
.
.
For those who do not get the reference:
https://planetes.fandom.com/wi... [fandom.com]
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Space Force (Score:2)
consider.
space forces first mission.
clean up the pollution that was created.
Wrong approach (Score:2)
Space Junk - Devo (Score:2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Also useful deorbiting functional satellites (Score:2)
Should double up as a safe space Weapon to de orbit functioning satellites.
The reality is that this has to be done.
Cue Elon (Score:2)
SpaceJanitor will be the next company.