Space Guard

The most recent disquisition on the idea is now available on line, as a PDF.

[Update a little later]

Yes, it’s long and wonky (it’s an appendix of a Space Policy Institute study), but once past the first couple pages it gets more interesting.

[Late evening update]

For those not aware, “SSA” is a TLA for “Space Situational Awareness.”

[Update a few minutes later]

I read this several months ago, and only passed it on in a hurry this morning on my way out the door, but by way of encouraging interest in the article, here is a representative sample of it:

Throughout the early days of aviation, there was a network of mutually supporting connections between the predecessors of the Air Force and the aviation industry, including both aircraft manufacturers and the airline operators. All parts of the aviation world generally supported each other. Due to NASA’s peculiar status as the sole civil government space organization for the majority of its life, NASA on the one hand has tightly controlled its contractors and discouraged robust discussion of means and ends when such collided with perceived NASA organizational goals. Meanwhile it viewed the emergence of private entities providing service directly to customers with hostility, or at a minimum an awkward uncertainty as to how such efforts should interact with the agencies. A USSG would be able to start with a clean slate and strive for a more balanced relationship with an industry whose existence and prosperity is part of its charter and rationale. A USSG might better be able to have comfortable and useful interactions with the Air Force, NASA, and the commercial space sector.

Really, read the whole thing, if you’re into space policy.

16 thoughts on “Space Guard”

  1. I was interested in the part about responsibilities of the USSG (US Space Guard). The three responsibilities I expected were: 1) enforcing the laws of the US (including treaty obligations), 2) awareness and mitigation of space environmental hazards such as debris or asteroid threats to Earth (some parts might be shared with other agencies such as solar activity or gamma ray bursts), and 3) search, rescue, and recovery. Some of the other responsibilities stem from a requirement that the USSG have the capabilities to engage in the above activities (particularly space situational awareness or SSA).

    Some activities do not seem very appropriate for the USSG. For example, maintaining weather satellites and other activities of the NOAA. If we should scuttle the Department of Commerce, I don’t think moving the NOAA to the USSG would be a good idea. For example, the NOAA handles a lot of ground activity (such as a system of weather stations and weather balloons) that would be a distraction for a space-oriented agency IMHO.

    Another example is managing all US government launch activity. Something like the US Merchant Marine might be appropriate for that task (also for assuring that there’s US space launch capability in time of war). But it seems to stretch the role of the USSG to handle all US government launches.

    Finally, I find the idea of a USSG academy intriguing (there’s a natural analogue to US Merchant Marine academies too BTW). It makes sense to require one. The question though is where to put it?

  2. G’day,

    Where to put it? In the district of the politician who provides most support.

    ta

    Ralph

  3. G’day,

    Karl, I think you will find the USAF funds its own weather satellites in conjunction with NOAA. The USSG could just take over those USAF functions.

    ta

    Ralph

  4. Karl, in this model only the actual acquisition and operation of the satellites would be a USSG responsibility. The data would be handed off to NOAA which would remain at DoC.

    Now that we seem to be moving toward genuinely commercial procurement of space launch service for routine US Government needs, organizational incentive considerations argue strongly for putting the purchasing office in an agency that has independent analytical capability, but that does not engage in launch vehicle design and/or development itself. The USSG would meet those requirements, and we currently have nothing that does.

    There’s no reason why the USSG Academy couldn’t serve as a combination equivalent of the USCG Academy and Merchant Marine Academy (King’s Point) functions. Graduates who chose the Merchant Space Fleet could serve a minimal hitch in the USSG to pay back the government, with maybe a longer USSG Reserve obligation.

  5. As for the location of the Academy, the East Coast has the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine academies. The Mountain West has the Air Force. The West Coast might make a nice place for the Space Guard; there’s plenty of spare real estate at Vandenberg or Edwards, and it would be neat for the students to be around spacey stuff.

  6. The other mission, currently not met anywhere, is the clearing and/or marking of debris to ensure “free navigation of the spaceways”. Another natural fit for a Space Guard.

  7. Another job analogous to USCG practice would be placement and maintenance of aids to navigation. For the USCG that means channel markers, beacons/lighthouses and the late LORAN. The USCG missed out on getting the GPS portfolio, but the putative USSG should have, among other jobs, the task of establishing and maintaining a position reference system analogous to terrestrial GPS that covers the entire solar system.

  8. Actually, it sounds like something the Air Force would want a piece of, if not the whole set of missions. Since the USAF has friends in places that can make setting up a separate service problematic, how do you convince them that such a service is needed?

  9. Jeff, the paper does mention control of space debris and earth-approching space objects (of whatever origin) as natural tasks for a USSG.

    The question of what attitude the USAF would take toward the idea of a USSG has already been the subject of substantial discussion. Some of the USSG’s tasks (e.g., civil regulation, constabulary functions) can’t be performed by the USAF. Others might be, but would be competing for resources, including skilled personnel, with the service’s more central warfighting tasks. Hopefully the USAF would conclude that what works well for the USN would work well for them — these dual-use, non-warfighting support functions are best undertaken by a separate service whose capabilities are still available to them when and if they are really needed.

  10. G’day,

    I would think protecting the Earth from natural space based disasters such as solar storms and impact events would be very much a role for the USSG . To this end they would really need a crewed interplanetary cruise capability. I would think a new organization that has been freed from the USAF and lacks the bureaucratic baggage of NASA could achieve this quickly and economically. Especially if they work with the commercial sector. In fact they would have too. Imagine a real life situation with an asteroid impact predicted in 3 years time. The conventional NASA development schedules would be useless. The culture of the organization has to be very practical and time focused. The first major project could be a Moon orbit mission to be done in 5 years max with a strict budget. Considering Apollo 8 did that in seven it shouldn’t be too difficult now.

  11. G’day,

    Some more thoughts on the culture of the organization. Every Marine is a rifleman. So why not have “Every Space Guardian is an astronaut”? Considering the likely availability of sub orbital rocketplanes soon it should be practical to make space flights an integral part of their training.

    ta

    Ralph

  12. Annapolis and New London have active sailing programs. Certainly the Academy could afford a few Lynxes…

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