A retired commander of the US Strategic Command explains the tens of thousands of satellites that SpaceX, One Web, and Amazon are preparing to send into orbit will need new automated technology. Such a system will be for space traffic administration. They will also need some new satellite hardware specifications, too. Retired Gen. Kevin Chilton further detailed his proposals for dealing with possible disastrous orbital traffic jams.
He stated: “We need to develop technologies that will improve space domain awareness, that will enable autonomous systems onboard satellites to automatically maneuver to avoid collision with another satellite, or with a known piece of man-mad debris.” Such a thing is supposed to display more as marketing enterprises develop more satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO).
To extend broadband internet access worldwide. Approximately 2,200 active satellites are nowadays in orbit, but if all the ideas and proposals come to pass, that estimation could go beyond 45,000 soon.
SpaceX Satellite Mega-Constellation Fuel Concerns On Orbital Collisions
Chilton added: “The Department of Defense is talking about it for both global missile warning and having a system that can track what we see coming down the road, which is hypersonic intercontinental re-entry vehicles.”
Actually, one of the funders for SpaceX’s Starlink constellations is the Air Force Research Laboratory, which gave in $28,7 million in 2018 to develop data connectivity proofs. SpaceX succeeded in sending 120 of its Starlink satellites, which are made at the company’s territory in Redmond, Wash. Many satellites are prepared to be sent in advance of the beginning of limited service next year.
Some researchers, however, even Chilton, aren’t so sure about that commercial mega-constellations will become profitable as their builders estimate. The $473 million Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, right now under development in Chile, is supposed to help revolutionize ground-based astronomy when it goes into service next year.