Satellites with robot arms could be used to pull others out of orbit

An Australian space industry expert has said he has concerns about the deployment of potentially threatening technology in space amid competition from Russia and China. 

Speaking on August 31, Space Industry Association of Australia CEO James Brown said there are currently concerns regarding new technologies in space including "satellites with robotic arms that could be used to grapple and pull them [others] down," Newsweek reports. 

Referring also to the Russian "dazzling" of satellites used to observe the Ukraine conflict, Brown said that "we are starting to see a lot more friction between the great powers in space."

Satellite-grappling technology has been demonstrated by China in the past. In January this year, a Chinese satellite grabbed another, an older one and pulled it out of its orbit into what's known as a "graveyard" orbit where it won't interfere with current activities. In other words, China was cleaning up space debris.

In April 2021, U.S. Space Command commander Gen. James Dickinson told Congress that he, too, was concerned about a "future system for grappling other satellites" used by China in an aggressive way.

The global space industry has become increasingly competitive in recent years, particularly with many countries cutting ties with Russia—one of the most accomplished spacefaring nations in the world—due to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's Roscosmos space agency has since announced its departure from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024 as well as the construction of its own space station. And in March, Roscosmos also said it would go ahead with launching the ExoMars project to research the red planet on its own after the European Space Agency (ESA) pulled out of the mission due to the situation in Ukraine.

China, too, has become an increasingly active player in space. In May 2021, the country successfully landed its first rover on Mars, having previously sent two to the moon. That achievement prompted NASA administrator Bill Nelson to label China an "aggressive competitor" in space.

China has also been constructing its own Tiangong space station in orbit around the Earth since April 2021, allowing the country to conduct science experiments in space. China had not been allowed to join the ISS program.

Speaking to Sky News, Brown also said other countries' rocket launches had been sending objects into space "that haven't been catalogued" or ended up having a purpose other than what it was designed for.

"Companies and governments have a growing reliance on [space]," he said. "We need to understand more about what's going on up there and what the rules of the road are."

Newsweek has contacted the Australian Space Agency for comment.

One of the main international concerns in space at the moment, also mentioned by Brown, is that as orbits around the Earth become increasingly busy, the risk of collisions between objects such as satellites or pieces of space junk increases.

In 2021, Russia sparked controversy after deliberately blowing up one of its own defunct satellites as part of an anti-satellite missile test. The resulting explosion produced a cloud of thousands of pieces of space debris, forcing ISS crew into shelter spaces as a precaution.

NASA administrator Bill Nelson told tech news outlet The Verge at the time that he was "outraged by this irresponsible and destabilizing action."