Transmat World: Would-Be Asteroid Miners Should Consider What’s in Orbit Around the Earth First

Five thousand satellites pass over your head every day. Only about two thousand are working. The rest are “junk” … inoperative … kaput. They represent approximately $20 billion worth of material floating around in space. The average weight of the currently active 2,064 satellites is 3,212 pounds. If defunct satellites follow that average it means there is 9,936,000 pounds of inoperable satellite in orbit worth $2,075 per pound. Since getting something into orbit costs about $10,000 per pound the actual value of that unused material in space is worth 120 billion dollars. That is more than is expected to be made from mining many asteroids. This is material that it is known exactly what it is, where it is, it’s already manufactured into useful components specifically for use in space, and it's already in space. Plus, it is much more accessible than even the closest near Earth asteroid. One of the asteroids we have actually been to is Ryugu. It’s estimated mineral value is just 83 billion dollars, and that is before costs to extract it are factored in.

The satellite situation has not gone unnoticed by some. Tom Markusic, founder of Firefly Space Systems, wants to tow these objects to an orbit around Mars where the salvaged components can help out with missions to Mars and the outer planets. Keith Volkert, CEO of Satellite Consulting, Inc., wants to use space tugs to tow these objects to an orbit around the Moon where they can be salvaged at leisure from a small space station orbiting there. The parts would then be catalogued and warehoused for future projects on the Moon or heading outward to Mars or beyond. NASA’s proposed Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway might fill the bill for this purpose, providing an attachment for a combination disassembly dock, warehouse, and habitat.

Besides making money, the removal of dead satellites from Earth orbit is a very good thing. There are too many of them, and the problem is getting worse. See this great time lapse video to see how big the problem is and how fast it is getting worse. There is the very real possibility of the Kessler Syndrome occurring. A cinematic portrayal of this event was well done in the movie Gravity. This is where a collision between objects in Earth orbit creates more objects in a cascading effect that eventually ruins the possibility of getting anything into orbit without being struck. Mankind could be stuck on Earth for a while.

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New technology in thrusters may enable these salvage plans to take shape. Accion Systems has developed an ion thruster on a chip. It does away with a lot of complicated plumbing, bringing the concept down to a chip that accelerates ions and a reservoir of fluid for ion creation. The thruster chip is called TILE — Tiled Ionic Liquid Electrospray. The size of a deck of cards, a TILE has been operated continuously for 42 days straight. The goal is 417 days. That is a lot of time thrusting and one of the things making this technology so promising.

As far as satellite removal goes, think of a selfie stick with some TILEs and electronics on one end and an attachment mechanism on the other. A swivel to allow directional changes gives us the first space tug chugging its way to the Moon and back, gradually whittling away at all those space debris objects representing orbital Armageddon.

Phase Four is another company making tiny, efficient thrusters applicable for this situation. Large, high voltage electronics typically produce and accelerate ions in Hall thrusters to move things around in space. Phase Four has reduced these components down to a size you might expect in a cellphone. These components generate radio waves accelerating plasma produced from xenon gas. These efficient little engines could be used to nudge old satellites outward to the Moon, maybe Mars.

Going beyond the simple salvage, many of these satellites have simply run out of fuel. If they were to be refueled, they would be perfectly good satellites again. A salvage operation could also become a service operation, boosting the value of this material many times over its salvage value. But there is a legal hurdle that must be jumped before salvaging or servicing occurs. By Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty countries are recognized to have jurisdiction and control over their space objects. Can this be valid after the origin country deliberately abandons the satellite in space? It can’t be a forever situation.

Once some company goes after an abandoned satellite and the country of origin protests, the U.N. must decide how to handle it. The U.N. should tell that nation that if they still want responsibility for their satellite, they will have to pay for it to stay in orbit. A yearly orbital fee based on the weight of the satellite should be levied by the U.N. on the country in question. I believe a nascent satellite salvage company should press the issue to get things done. The world’s governments and the U.N. are unlikely to spontaneously get around to solving this problem.

I think we will be hearing more about companies with schemes to remove dead satellites and simultaneously mine them for their valuable components. It is certainly a better plan than destroying these valuable objects and may even eclipse news and plans for asteroid mining for the near future.