TOKYO: The US Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which develops new technologies for military use, has just released a video showing the way a satellite can be launched into low Earth orbit from the underbelly of a jet fighter.
The agency says its ALASA program—standing for Airborne Launch Assist Space Access—could put a satellite into low Earth orbit within 24 hours of a request, a report by CBS News said. Compare this with the years the government usually takes to schedule a launch.
Another big advantage to ALASA is that a small satellite weighing up to 100 pounds can be launched without the need for a particular launch site or the expensive manpower that goes with a traditional launch.
There is a growing market for less costly, smaller satellites and DARPA wants to bring the cost of a launch down from the $50 million price tag today to $1 million or less. Private companies, such as Virgin Galactic, also are looking at ways to dramatically reduce the cost of satellite launches.
“Small satellites in the ALASA payload class represent the fastest-growing segment of the space launch market, and DARPA expects this growth trend to continue as small satellites become increasingly more capable,” said DARPA’s ALASA program manager in a statement.
Some scientists concerned about the growing amount of space junk orbiting planet Earth likely will not be greeting this news with much enthusiasm. And, in fact, space debris is becoming a growing problem.
For example, satellites occasionally have had to adjust their orbits to avoid passing space junk and astronauts aboard the International Space Station even have sometimes had to hurry to their Soyuz escape capsule as bits and pieces of metal go flying past the space lab, according to a 2013 report by The Washington Post. And some chunks of debris are moving at speeds as high as 22,000 miles per hour.
A 2011 report by the National Research Council cautioned that a ‘tipping point’ may not be far off, when space collisions like the 2009 crash between two intact satellites—a U.S. Iridium and a Russian cosmos—become more and more common. That tipping point, the report said, may be less than one or two decades away.
