For the last few decades the international space community has freely used near-Earth space for many important applications without regard for the impact of artificial satellites on the space environment. Although space-faring nations have spewed trash from 200 km to beyond 36,000 km, the space below about 1,600 km has been severely abused.
Recent events have finally persuaded the U.S. Government to start thinking about cleaning up this environmental "super fund site." No, it is not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that has been given the task of figuring out how to remove space debris. It is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a part of the Department of Defense (DOD).
On September 17th, DARPA released a Request for Information (RFI) regarding orbital debris removal capabilities. This request is addressed to all potential domestic and foreign sources and it asks for innovative solutions that might lead to the eventual removal of orbital debris.
The significance of this new DARPA initiative is that the leading space-faring nation has finally recognized the growing risk that space debris poses with regard to future free access and use of space. Important applications that keep the world economy growing and provide national security for many countries are jeopardized by the ever increasing debris threat.
Launchspace has been a leader in sounding the alarm about a possible future space disaster in which many operational satellites would be destroyed in a short period of time due to collisions with debris objects.
This new DARPA program makes it clear that a huge new space infrastructure program is coming to the international space community: a program that will involve all space-faring nations, tens of billions of dollars and decades of development, testing and operations. This is a program in which every element of the space community will be involved.
Everyone reading this editorial will be affected, and all of you should be interested in getting up to speed on space debris issues and possible solutions. This is where Launchspace can help. Register for the "must take" one-day intense seminar: Space Debris and the Future of Space Flight, November 5th in Washington, DC.
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