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Augustine Likes Space Debris Treaty

By Colin Clark Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 5:58 pm
Posted in International, Policy, Space

He’s affable, writes well, is sharp as a tack and he’s unemployed. He’s also Norm Augustine, about as close as you get these days to the giants of the aerospace business like Curtiss, Hughes, Tripp and the guys who used their initials to start a cool company called TRW.

When this former CEO of Lockheed Martin, and recent head of the Augustine Committee charged with reviewing America’s manned space flight plans, says a treaty on space debris is a good idea and that we have a “window” in which he thinks one can be cobbled together, it’s worth listening.

Augustine made his brief remarks about a space debris treaty today during a panel organized by the Center for a New American Security (AKA the Obama administration’s team in waiting) on “the global commons.”

For those who may have missed it, concern about space debris exploded (sorry for the pun) when the Chinese destroyed an out of commission weather satellite in January 2007. That strike created roughly 10 percent of all space debris, increasing the risks to any human in orbit, as well as to satellites in low earth orbit.

Currently,the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee tries to encourage its members to limit the amount of debris they create. Also, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (known to space geek as COPUOS) keeps an eye on the issue. Neither one has much clout beyond moral suasion.

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	Zach January 27th, 2010 at 4:29 am We NEED to clean up all the dead satellites and other junk we left out in space. Best option would be to join with other space agencies around the world (and perhaps making one global space agency). And have all nations chip in for space exploration (and space cleanup). But people will go cry about sovereignty and other stupid junk, while budgets shrink, and people talk about sending probes to asteroids, instead of returning to the moon and setting up a base there, then eventually sending manned missions to mars and colonizing it.
	John King January 27th, 2010 at 3:04 pm Here’s an idea. If NASA is looking for a mission, have them keep the Shuttle, but assign it a new mission — Space Waste Management. All they have to do is capture each of the 7,000 pieces of space junk as they literally “sweep the skies”, pushing each piece towards the Earth, where it will burn up on re-entry. Like carbon credits, we assess each “owner” of the 7,000 items a small surcharge to pay for the fuel the Shuttle will burn up. Problem solved!
	mike j January 27th, 2010 at 3:55 pm The Space Shuttle is really not a good platform for that– too expensive and too fragile. The mission would be robotic. Apart from that, I like the idea of NASA as space janitors, seems to resonate for me. There’s some really interesting science behind capturing or possibly destroying space debris in situ without adding to the problem.
	DensityDuck January 27th, 2010 at 9:37 pm Looks like a job for Hachimaki and the Half Section!
	Jack Mehoff January 27th, 2010 at 7:37 pm Good luck. Do you really think you’re going to just fly up there, chase down an object the size of a softball, moving at 17,500 mph and toss it in a trash bag? LOL. You’re not even addressing the thousands or more debris objects the size of a quarter, that you cannot track. This debris comes from multiple sources, old boosters, satellite breakups, colissions, and yes, ASAT tests. The only REAL solution is to not put more stuff up there, but that’s not going to happen. Eventually, we will have so contaminated near earth orbit, that you’ll not be able to put anything up there.
	BRM January 28th, 2010 at 4:10 am How is it possible for the material left up there to stay suspended in orbit for any length of time; next we’ll have our own rings like Saturn to deal with on every launch from here on up. I’d be looking into buttnig a craft that generates a magnetic field to draw debris to it; if we can track the debris, the old shovle scoop type craft that stays out for security and another agency to dump on EPA with wings. They’ll start the pick up the glass, metal, plastic and Bio to return to home base; cost should be imposed to who own’s it..or use it to recyle it to a stockpile on the moon or add the maintenence shop on the Space Station and include a neuclear oven to melt down what is salvaged to help with discounting the cost of what takes to operate out there. I wouldn’t think all the governments that are Celestial Travelors that are responsible would want to share any of their technology. there is still an interest in such salvage; you would think someone would form a space mining operations on asteroids to start with those of interest and world safety; toe it to the moon and harvest what ails you.
	Phoenix January 28th, 2010 at 1:32 pm What a wonderful opportunity for the current administration to create high-tech, high-paying, short-termed jobs as a stimulus to the economy along with drilling off-shore.
	Oble January 28th, 2010 at 8:28 pm Perhaps they could put together a TV program where all these dreams could be realized. Meanwhile in the real world the money for all these dreams doesn’t exist. The Moon and Mars missions will be scrapped and and the space program will consist of begging seats on Soyuz.
	Guest January 29th, 2010 at 5:18 am Norm Augustine? Are you referring to the same Norm Augustine that could not come up with a single innovative idea for NASA other than give more money to Lockheed Martin? The same Norm Augustine that made millions for himself by selling out Martin Marieta and taking the poison pill money to merge with Lockheed? The same guy that from time to time reiterates the same old platitudes that have led to consistent cost overruns and millions in undeserved revenues for the big aerospace companies? And now, shockingly, he is proposing yet another extremely expensive corporate welfare program to reward his old cronies. If he is “as close as you get these days to the giants of aerospace”, it is a reminder of how far we have fallen. Perhaps it is this lack of leadership that is our real problem.
	Phoenix February 3rd, 2010 at 9:59 pm I, too, am frustrated by all the years of incestuous awarding of contracts and commission memberships that have the people who created the problems from the beginning being the ones telling us how to solve the ones left over from the greedy days of extreme profits, the awards of huge golden parachutes, and selection for membership on boards of directors that reward them and their cronies. When our aerospace industry workforce and the stockholders wake up and find out what has happened — guess who the winners are?