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For a while now, alarms have been sounding in the US military over activities of Chinese and Russian spacecraft in orbit which can be viewed as potentially threatening.
U.S. military leaders have called out Russia for deploying so-called inspector vehicles in close proximity to American spy satellites, raising suspicions about their intentions. They usually expressed concern when a Chinese spacecraft equipped with a robotic arm towed a defunct geostationary satellite to a graveyard orbit, raising the specter of a future system that could possibly be used to seize U.S. assets.
To control these potentially hazardous activities, military officials have called for improved capabilities to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance in orbit, also often known as space domain awareness.
Ensuring the U.S. is fully aware of what rivals are doing in space “is a real concern,” said Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements.
“Physics absolutely makes it hard,” Garrant said. “It’s not only tracking and monitoring but in addition characterizing what kind of spacecraft it’s, and anticipating its behavior.”
To tackle this challenge, the Space Force is ramping up spending on sensors and data analytics, Garrant said. The 2024 budget proposal includes $584 million for space domain awareness programs, or $100 million greater than what was allocated in 2023. He noted that almost all of the added spending is targeted on geosynchronous orbit, where the military parks its most respected satellites.
Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, told reporters on the Space Symposium last month that the military looks forward to the deployment of SilentBarker, an area surveillance satellite co-developed by the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office to enhance situational space awareness in geostationary Earth orbit.
SilentBarker, scheduled to launch to orbit later this 12 months, will complement the coverage provided by six Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites which have been in orbit for several years. The 2 newest GSSAP satellites launched to orbit in January 2022.
NRO Director Chris Scolese told reporters on the Space Symposium that there will probably be “multiple” SilentBarker. “We expect it’ll be a useful capability, and we’ll be searching for additional satellites,” he said.
COMMERCIAL OPTIONS
Besides government-built satellites, there are actually commercially available technologies for in-orbit space domain awareness. Shaw said the military doesn’t necessarily care where the capabilities come from so long as they work. “I do think our solution set to this problem might be a mix of a variety of things,” he said.
Shaw noted that one in every of the issues with GSSAP and other big-ticket DoD spacecraft is their limited ability to maneuver so that they can get a greater view of an object. These satellites were built to remain in orbit for many years and live off their existing fuel supply, so their movement must be minimized.
In response to the military’s demand for maneuverable surveillance systems, the business space industry is working on latest products.
Redwire, for instance, plans to exhibit later this 12 months a small camera that could possibly be placed on satellites to watch and characterize suspicious objects. Pending the final result of the demonstration, Redwire says it could mass produce the camera and offer it to the military.
The startup True Anomaly plans to launch an experiment with two small satellites this fall where one will try to chase down an uncooperative object and take pictures up close. The corporate plans to market these vehicles to the military to spice up domain awareness.
One other startup, Katalyst Space, is working on an area surveillance sensor designed to be mounted on satellites to assist track debris and other threats in orbit. The corporate desires to partner with a big defense contractor to check the payload.
These are technologies the industry believes will help the U.S. hold China and Russia accountable for aggressive actions in space and possibly deter such behavior.
If more of those assets are put in orbit, the info collected by government and business sensors could possibly be crucial for American military planners to observe potential threats and develop appropriate response measures.