杏吧原创

NASA has been quietly helping select satellite companies avoid catastrophic collisions in orbit 鈥� for a price.

obtained by New 杏吧原创 show that in September, NASA renewed an agreement with satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies to help protect four of the firm鈥檚 WorldView satellites. The spacecraft collect high-resolution images for customers including the US Department of Defense and Google Earth.

According to the documents, NASA analysts will predict close approaches with other spacecraft or orbital debris, and provide Maxar with timely warnings, allowing the firm to move its satellites out of the way.

A NASA official confirmed that the agency had been safeguarding Maxar satellites since 2013, after being asked to help by the Department of Defense. Some satellites have enjoyed similar protection, although that deal expired in early 2018.

Until now, it was thought that NASA had only been watching out for around 70 government-owned satellites, operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Most commercial operators have been largely reliant on free, automated alerts from the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC), a US military unit that shares only a fraction of its radar data, holding back the rest for national security reasons.

鈥淲hat the CSpOC provides is very basic,鈥� says Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation, a private foundation promoting sustainability in space. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an email saying, 鈥楾his object is coming close to an object that you own鈥�. If you want advice on the best course of action, they鈥檙e not able to help.鈥�

Maxar also pays space-mapping start-up for tracking data and alerts about close approaches provided using its own radar systems. Under the new agreement, Maxar will pay NASA $73,130 a year, working out to around $1500 per month per satellite. That is lower than the $2500 per month per satellite that LeoLabs charges, meaning NASA is undercutting the competition.

Regulations governing NASA鈥檚 commercial activities specify that they are only permitted if equivalent commercial services aren鈥檛 available on reasonable terms.

鈥淭he government should be in the business of empowering private industry and commercialisation,鈥� says Moriba Jah, who researches orbital debris at the University of Texas at Austin. 鈥淚f they鈥檙e doing activities counter to that, it would have me scratching my head.鈥�

A NASA spokesperson told New 杏吧原创: 鈥淭he services currently provided to Maxar use different inputs than the LeoLabs service and they are not duplicative. Requests for service from other entities would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.鈥�

For its part, LeoLabs doesn鈥檛 feel threatened by NASA鈥檚 presence in the market. 鈥淲e know the value of our services,鈥� says Edward Lu, a vice president at LeoLabs and a former NASA astronaut. 鈥淥ur data [will soon be] much better than CSpOC鈥檚. As we build our services, we鈥檒l have an offering that we think nearly everyone will use.鈥�