Orbital Prime Garbage Collectors Active Debris Remediation
Orbital Prime, a program launched by the US Space Force, wants to reduce orbital debris. They're looking for earth-orbiting garbage collectors.
Recently, it has launched a program, called Orbital Prime, under the U.S. Space Force that would give companies seed money to develop the technology needed to clean up space. In the first round of the program, companies would win awards of $250,000, with as much as $1.5 million in a second round of funding. The program would culminate with a test demonstration in orbit.
In a video posted online advertising the program, Gen. David Thompson, the Space Force’s vice chief of space operations, said the Pentagon tracks more than 40,000 objects in space the size of a fist or larger. But he said there are at least 10 times as many smaller objects in orbit that the Pentagon can’t reliably track.
“This debris and associated congestion threaten the long-term sustainability of the space domain,” he said. “It demands action.”
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