By Chris Forrester
There are some 25,000 objects, at least the size of a softball, orbiting the Earth and more than 100 million smaller pieces, according to NASA. Moderator Steve Richeson, VP Sales & Marketing, Mission Microwave but said this is an issue that affects those working on the Ground Segment just as much as those working in space. “This issue has been kicking around for some time, and our panel will tell you it is not hopeless. He explained that there are laws in place, notably the Orbital Debris Sustainable Deployment Act, from the U.S. Senate. There are efforts to make this a United Nations responsibility.”
Tom Stroup, President, The Satellite Industry Assoc., told delegates at the Smallsat Symposium held at Mountain View, that the SIA and its members had started looking at space debris some 10 years ago. “Meeting s with key parties led to us putting together some industry standards and best-practices advice. This included having personnel available 24/7 to deal with orbital conjunction issues. We have submitted our thoughts to the new administration’s transition team. There needs to be ‘rules of the road’, so to speak and management of the problems.”
Dr. Chiara Manfletti, CEO, Neuraspace, based in Portugal, focuses on “smarter space traffic management” which detects potential high-risk collisions earlier. “Currently we are serving more than 400 satellites with our software products and with sensors on the ground to support this work. Some times a client, especially with a large satellite, is having to decide whether or not to initiate a manoeuvre in a situation. We can advise on that dilemma. We also handle real time screening so if a move is agreed that the craft is not moving toward another problem. We also coordinate between operators.”
Brennan Allen, Head of Sales at Morpheus Space which was founded in Dresden, Germany and builds the ‘GO-2’ electric propulsion system. GO-2 is designed for repositioning, collision avoidance and station keeping for orbital satellites. Mr Allen said they have a product (of 1U size) which can be attached to CubeSats. “We understand collision avoidance but our thinking also includes getting the best return on your investment (ROI) in space. Station keeping, as well as collision avoidance is part of that ROI. We are not so much ‘doom and gloom’ but in returning investment for customers.”
Dr. Clare Martin, EVP, Astroscale U.S., and explained that her company with the vision of a safe, sustainable future for space for future generations. “Orbital debris is a global problem. We are very much focused on bringing the next generation of usability for space to the forefront and achieving our vision. There are things which can be done to mitigate the problem right through from design to launch. We look at orbital inspection to find out what is going on, as well as our services to support spacecraft at the end of life including the potential removal of a spacecraft from a constellation. We also have a couple of missions around the world which are looking at active debris removal right now. Regulation and Innovation should move at a similar pace but there also needs to be consistency in regulation. It would be good if there could be agreement around the world as to what good practice means. But international coordination tends to be slow. But we should not wait, we could start to address this problem now.”
Jane Ielmini, Co-founder/COO, Orbotic Systems, which was founded to keeping space sustainable and safe. “We want to create less debris in space, and we have a passive deorbiter which conforms to the FCC 5-year deorbit rules, which we are very happy to see in place. There’s no need to have dead satellites up there for 25 years. Our D3-Deorbit drag device can be used to manoeuvre a satellite or constellation, deorbit a satellite, and target the re-entry location. D3 does this passively, without any rocket propellant, making it the ideal deorbit solution,” she said. She added that deorbiting was fine but not if it passed through active orbits and thus increased the risk of creating further debris.
