America's Air Force Seeks Commercial Technologies For 'Space Domain Awareness

America's Air Force is seeking proposals for technologies "for operations far beyond geosynchronous Earth orbit, near the moon's orbit," reports SpaceNews:Specific items the Air Force wants: payloads for providing space domain awareness from the lunar surface, lightweight sensors for space-based space domain awareness, and methodologies for orbit determination and catalog maintenance in cislunar space. The Air Force also is interested in concepts for providing position, navigation and timing solutions for cislunar space operations; visualization of cislunar orbits; and terrestrial-based concepts for achieving space domain awareness of cislunar space. The inclusion of cislunar space capabilities in the Small Business Innovation Research program was unexpected, said Shawn Usman, an astrophysicist and founder of the space consulting firm Rhea Space Activity. The industry sees this as a sign that the Air Force, and the future Space Force, are responding to advances made by China, Usman told SpaceNews. "This is definitely a pretty big turning point for the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. 'new space' industry, our near-peer competitors, and for the upcoming Space Force."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Click here to read full news..