Space Force wants to pay commercial space to remove space junk
Capitalism in space: In a video released today, the Space Force announced a new program, dubbed Orbital Prime, that asks commercial companies to bid on a new test program for removing space junk.
More info here.
The initial solicitation, due by February 17th, asks for proposals capable of achieving the ability to rendezvous, dock and service a piece of space junk, either by “repairing, repositioning, refueling, deorbiting, reusing or recycling” it. The solicitation is aiming for orbital test flights in no more than two to four years.
This approach by the military is excellent news, and continues the transition by the space-related agencies of federal government from trying to design and build everything itself to acting merely as a customer and buying what it needs from the private sector.
There are a number of companies who have already launched robots capable of doing exactly this, including Northrop Grumman and Astroscale. By taking this customer approach, the military will likely not only get a junk removal capability sooner, it will do so for far less cost.
It would also seem that the Russian anti-satellite test that produced thousands of pieces of orbital junk that now threatens ISS and a number of military satellites also helped prompt this announcement. The military has clearly recognized that it needs the capability to remove space junk now. It cannot afford to follow its past behavior of taking forever to accomplish such tasks.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Capitalism in space: In a video released today, the Space Force announced a new program, dubbed Orbital Prime, that asks commercial companies to bid on a new test program for removing space junk.
More info here.
The initial solicitation, due by February 17th, asks for proposals capable of achieving the ability to rendezvous, dock and service a piece of space junk, either by “repairing, repositioning, refueling, deorbiting, reusing or recycling” it. The solicitation is aiming for orbital test flights in no more than two to four years.
This approach by the military is excellent news, and continues the transition by the space-related agencies of federal government from trying to design and build everything itself to acting merely as a customer and buying what it needs from the private sector.
There are a number of companies who have already launched robots capable of doing exactly this, including Northrop Grumman and Astroscale. By taking this customer approach, the military will likely not only get a junk removal capability sooner, it will do so for far less cost.
It would also seem that the Russian anti-satellite test that produced thousands of pieces of orbital junk that now threatens ISS and a number of military satellites also helped prompt this announcement. The military has clearly recognized that it needs the capability to remove space junk now. It cannot afford to follow its past behavior of taking forever to accomplish such tasks.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Remove all you want. The commies will make more.
1.) This capability could have been put up for bid at anytime in the last 10 years, and should have been.
2.) The USAF Air Staff had no attention to spare for it in a “things with wings” Service, nor any budgeted money to bribe Congress members into voting for it as a line item, which it probably has to be.
3.) USSF *has* the attention, and is paying attention. It has a Congress with its major boosters/critics asking why it isn’t moving faster.
4.) It still has the rest of the security establishment to drag along behind it, … State Department, … NRO, … and a constellation of other agencies that have bathed in the last 50 years of “keep what worked before going”. Meanwhile, PLASSF has developed the means to shatter what worked before, and have a far higher deployment rate *at*the*moment* than does the US.
5.) *Any* device that can remove debris or inactive sats from orbit is a small step away from an orbital ASAT, which the US governmental consensus has *not* favored introducing, because its own abilities in orbit are such a large advantage that we don’t want to set that precedent.
6.) The commercial route’s advantages is that USSF need not wait for Congress to fund an entire 12 years long development program in “the right political districts”.
7.) The Policy-level disadvantage is this may strengthen the current PLASSF/PLA/CPC line that in Space “Private = Pirate”. It is notable that as CPC propaganda declares its “civilizational” emphasis, the policies of the agrarian millennia dynasties start to leak through, including the attitude that sea-going trade and strength in commercial groups is a natural lead in to the piracy that plagued China from 1280-1560. While the CPC/PLA have locked down actual sea-going piracy, their attitude toward spaceflight seems to have picked up Space as the new equivalent for “Private = Pirate”. Hiring commercial groups to pull *anything* out of orbit is going to strengthen this.
8.) This is a good thing to do. That said, it is not without costs. We must accept those costs with clear eyes and a focus on growing capability.
This is excellent.
1. Identify a problem.
2. Leverage the free market to solve the problem.
Get a big “space net” to scoop up as much debris and then let it re-enter the atmosphere and burn up – problem solved!