Space Community Pushes OSTP on Orbital Debris, Spending
Putting federal muscle behind repurposing or recycling orbital debris and designating a single agency responsible for overseeing orbital debris removal were recommended by the space community to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. That's according to nearly 400 pages of comments filed last month with OSTP on its proposed debris R&D plan, and obtained Friday via a Communications Daily Freedom of Information Act request.
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Filers advocated common standards for collision avoidance and decision-making and said the U.S. should play a role in creating a crowdsourced set of data gathered from satellite operators and commercial space situational awareness providers and the government. There were multiple calls for the U.S. to push for an international agreement banning anti-satellite testing and for it to spearhead a demonstration of large object removal, plus a variety of policy recommendations.
The space community needs a forum for identifying who's responsible for specific debris and ways of preventing further debris of that type, said OneWeb. It said satellite operators should have to report the state of their constellations and debris generated in previous launches before getting authorization for future launches. Today's asymmetrical regulatory burdens on only U.S.-authorized systems will lead to venue shopping by bad actors, SpaceX said. Look at how to eliminate regulatory imbalance for foreign-flagged operators wanting U.S. market access, and how foreign administrations can be motivated to follow U.S. space sustainability standards, it said.
Amazon's Kuiper said the government should play a leadership role in bringing the public and private sector together to identify best practices and methods for reducing debris risks. Viasat said a big research area OSTP is seemingly ignoring is quantifying the safe limits to orbital debris: "That is: 'How much is too much?'" An evaluation of current and proposed U.S. government space safety standards is necessary because many "have been rendered obsolete" by mega constellations. Iridium said OSTP needs to work with the satellite industry to develop orbital debris mitigation best practices. It said operators planning for orbits of between 400km and 2000 km should be required to justify their use of those orbits.
OSTP should recommend the FCC get a full seat on the National Space Council, and that DOD completely hand over space situational awareness duties, funding and personnel to Commerce, said TechFreedom. It recommended the U.S. grant market access only to entities abiding by U.S. orbital debris rules, and criticized OSTP efforts as being narrowly focused on tech to the exclusion of debris-related economic, legal and policy issues. The National Space Society urged standardizing best practices for mission design, plus federal work to develop mitigation technologies that will extend spacecraft design life.
The orbital debris R&D plan puts heavy focus on propulsion systems for satellite maneuverability, and more focus needs to be on development of algorithms that can autonomously generate maneuverability instructions, Kayhan Space said. It said inconsistencies among satellite operators about their risk tolerances and protocols for responding to a potential collision increase the collective risk of operations in space.
Progress is being made on debris mitigation, but U.S. efforts on remediation "have been historically hamstrung by a lack of centralized coordination, clear authorization and requisite appropriations," Astroscale said: Allow NASA to play a robust role in supporting debris removal R&D. Long term, the federal government must create a civil space traffic management capability, it said.
A sole agency should be in charge of and overseeing orbital debris removal, setting policy and authorizing missions, said Bradford Space. It sought federal support of "tow truck" spacecraft in orbit that can be sent on demand to a debris location.
Work toward foreign regulatory alignment -- including a ban on anti-satellite testing and standards limiting debris from launches -- is key to a safer space environment, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation said. It criticized the lack of "a truly comprehensive capability to crowdsource data" from satellite operators, the government and space situational awareness providers and urged U.S. efforts toward better data sharing.