An American space firm aims to use United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX rockets to launch orbiting robots next year, 2023, according to a report by Insider.
Four robots are now being built by the New Hampshire-based company Rogue Space Systems, each of which is intended to carry out a particular function in orbit to support satellites and clean up space debris.
SpaceX and ULA Rockets
The space industry is now quite concerned about space junk. As more launches occur, there is an increasing amount of debris in orbit, such as discarded rocket components and defunct satellites.
Some of these objects even crash on Earth's surface as they reenter the atmosphere.
According to Rogue's founder Jeromy Grimmett, Rogue has agreements with the launch service Exolaunch for two launches on SpaceX rockets to carry two robots.
One of the robots will also be flying on a ULA spacecraft in collaboration with the US Space Force, while another robot will launch on a SpaceX rocket.
Grimmett predicted that the first launch would occur in February and a second would happen in May.
Who Are The Robots?
Grimmett told Insider that Rogue had given its robots names of individuals close to particular employees. One of Rogue's smaller robots, Barry, was given the name of a bat that flies around the workplace.
The first robot created by Rogue to be launched into space will be Barry. Upon entering orbit, it either deploys a satellite to watch it or checks and monitors items.
Grimmett said Rogue is most enthusiastic about Laura, a space robot that can operate and conduct diagnostics on other orbiting objects or satellites.
He also said that another robot named Charlie, who is still in the early phases of development, will have skills akin to Laura's.
Whereas Fred is a 325-kilogram robot that Rogue hopes to launch into orbit by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. He will have four robotic arms and be capable of transferring satellites and other things between orbits.
According to Grimmett, some of Rogue's robots will tether objects and drag them in orbit toward the atmosphere, where they should burn up.
Read also: Japan Plans to Create a Laser Beam to Eliminate Satellite Debris in Space
Addressing the Space Junk Problem
According to the European Space Agency, there are currently more than 130 million particles of space debris orbiting the Earth. These items are moving at a speed of about ten times that of a bullet, and when they contact, they may produce even more debris.
A study also claimed that rocket bodies are about three times more likely to crash at the latitudes of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Jakarta in Indonesia, or Lagos in Nigeria than in the US's New York, Russia's Moscow, and China's Beijing.
The risk to human life over the following ten years due to uncontrolled rocket reentries was also estimated by the authors of the study as a "casualty expectation."
Rogue's space robots have end-of-life plans so they won't wind up becoming their own space debris.
Four robots are obviously not enough to assist in clearing up all the space junk, but Grimmett said they would keep building as many as the Space Force and their customers need.
Related Article: [Do You Know?] There's A 10% Chance Of Space Junk Killing Someone, Especially in the Global South
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
