8 ms·

Does the US government have any authority on this? I thought there were a dozen countries launching satellites now.

by rr888 4y ago

enraged_camel 4y ago
Having the world’s most powerful military gives them de facto authority. :)
MichaelCollins 4y ago
Space is "international waters". Any country has the right to remove dangerous debris from the ocean or from space.
- guntars 4y ago
  They also have the right to create the space junk in the first place. What are they going to do, revoke your space launch permit?
- _carbyau_ 4y ago
  One mans space treasure is another mans space junk. Say China decides to flood a particular orbit path that a US company was planning on using and went through all the approvals for. Is the China stuff now "dangerous debris"?
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    It works the same way in space as it does in the ocean. You can mess with other people's stuff under the pretext of doing something legitimate, and you might get away with it or you might provoke a conflict. It depends on who you are, who you're messing with, who your friends and their friends are, whether they stand to lose face or can pretend they didn't notice it, etc. The US once tried to steal the wreck of an entire Soviet nuclear-armed submarine off the bottom of the ocean (and mostly failed.) The Soviet response was a request to stop talking about it, because it wasn't worth a war and Soviet leadership didn't want to explain the incident to their own public.
    - _carbyau_ 4y ago
      Which is my point. This isn't just about "removing junk". This is about space capability vs others in space.
      - MichaelCollins 4y ago
        Depends. If they're building satellites that grapple dead satellites, that can certainly be used to attack active satellites too. But laser brooms wouldn't be effective against anything larger than a few centimeters. A space broom might be a cover for a more powerful directed energy weapon, but not necessarily so. Anyway, China is already toying around with the first sort, and they didn't ask anybody for permission. Their 'authority' to do it is being a sovereign nation. https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sj-21.htm https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sj-21.htm
Jtsummers 4y ago
What authority do you think this bill is claiming that would be impacted by other countries launching? You can read it here: https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ORBITS-Act-MCC22829-09082022.pdf https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/... It's establishing (assuming it gets passed and signed) the work for a demonstration program on active debris removal from orbit. It's not imposing the US government's will on anyone else.
- landemva 4y ago
  - abduhl 4y ago
    - landemva 4y ago
      - abduhl 4y ago
        I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. Are you some kind of sovereign citizen? If you don't pay taxes then the USA government isn't spending your tax dollars like you said they were in your first post, is it?
        filoleg 4y ago
        It means they are unemployed. I am not trying to attack the grandparent poster or anything, I seriously think that's what they intended to say. They are basically saying "I only have to pay income tax if I work, and the government cannot force me to work so they can extract tax money from me.". On an off-hand chance that they indeed just earn money under the table and do not report the income, it was probably not the sharpest idea to admit it on a large-visibility public form.
azernik 4y ago
This is specifically funding for R&D.

Does the US government have any authority on this? I thought there were a dozen countries launching satellites now.

by rr888 4y ago

Does the US government have any authority on this? I thought there were a dozen countries launching satellites now.

enraged_camel 4y ago

Having the world’s most powerful military gives them de facto authority. :)

MichaelCollins 4y ago

Space is "international waters". Any country has the right to remove dangerous debris from the ocean or from space.

guntars 4y ago
They also have the right to create the space junk in the first place. What are they going to do, revoke your space launch permit?
_carbyau_ 4y ago
One mans space treasure is another mans space junk. Say China decides to flood a particular orbit path that a US company was planning on using and went through all the approvals for. Is the China stuff now "dangerous debris"?
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  It works the same way in space as it does in the ocean. You can mess with other people's stuff under the pretext of doing something legitimate, and you might get away with it or you might provoke a conflict. It depends on who you are, who you're messing with, who your friends and their friends are, whether they stand to lose face or can pretend they didn't notice it, etc. The US once tried to steal the wreck of an entire Soviet nuclear-armed submarine off the bottom of the ocean (and mostly failed.) The Soviet response was a request to stop talking about it, because it wasn't worth a war and Soviet leadership didn't want to explain the incident to their own public.
  - _carbyau_ 4y ago
    Which is my point. This isn't just about "removing junk". This is about space capability vs others in space.
    - MichaelCollins 4y ago
      Depends. If they're building satellites that grapple dead satellites, that can certainly be used to attack active satellites too. But laser brooms wouldn't be effective against anything larger than a few centimeters. A space broom might be a cover for a more powerful directed energy weapon, but not necessarily so. Anyway, China is already toying around with the first sort, and they didn't ask anybody for permission. Their 'authority' to do it is being a sovereign nation. https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sj-21.htm https://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/sj-21.htm

Jtsummers 4y ago

What authority do you think this bill is claiming that would be impacted by other countries launching? You can read it here: https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ORBITS-Act-MCC22829-09082022.pdf https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/... It's establishing (assuming it gets passed and signed) the work for a demonstration program on active debris removal from orbit. It's not imposing the US government's will on anyone else.

landemva 4y ago
- abduhl 4y ago
  - landemva 4y ago
    - abduhl 4y ago
      I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. Are you some kind of sovereign citizen? If you don't pay taxes then the USA government isn't spending your tax dollars like you said they were in your first post, is it?
      - filoleg 4y ago
        It means they are unemployed. I am not trying to attack the grandparent poster or anything, I seriously think that's what they intended to say. They are basically saying "I only have to pay income tax if I work, and the government cannot force me to work so they can extract tax money from me.". On an off-hand chance that they indeed just earn money under the table and do not report the income, it was probably not the sharpest idea to admit it on a large-visibility public form.

azernik 4y ago

This is specifically funding for R&D.