Small Satellites, Safety Challenges, and Reforms Related to Strategic Space Defense Systems

Abstract

The question of how to manage and cope with increasing congestion in orbit in order to maintain safe and secure space operations has now come to the fore. This is the case in the USA, where policymakers and industry are involved in efforts to revamp current laws governing space activities, as well as in international fora where normative discussions are the dominant approach.

The increased salience of space traffic management (STM) has been largely driven by the growing commercial interest in the deployment of small satellites in mega-constellations, which inevitably will increase space congestion and challenge space safety. The increase in very small satellites in low Earth Orbit (LEO) makes space situational awareness more difficult. Complicating the picture is the advent of spacecraft capable of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) – operations that hold vast promise but also carry great risks.

Thus, the creation of a STM regime, including new safety standards related to removal of space debris from orbit, is becoming more urgent.

Unfortunately, ensuring space safety and assuaging national security concerns about protecting military space capabilities are in some ways contradictory. Safety and security often require opposing strategies; national versus international control often require opposing approaches. The US military and other operators of space security systems face a number of dilemmas in dealing with their needs vis-a-vis those of the wider space operating community, as discussed in this article.

This article, now with brief updates and some editorial amendments, previously appeared in the Journal of Space Safety Engineering 6(2), 2019. It is licensed to the publisher to be printed in the Handbook of Small Satellites by the author, who continues to hold the copyright. It is published here under its new title and with amended text.