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."

As long as the domain leads to a Star Fleet...

[EzInKy]

...and not a Space Force it is all good.

What does the current trend in state leadership te

[BAReFO0t]

Where does it look like we are acceleratig towards right now?

I'm surprised I haven't heard of full blown concentration camps and Reichskristallnacht plans yet. At least no ON US territory.
(Outside of that, look up "black sites". On top of North Korea, China, Saudi Ariabia, and all the other nutters, which I can assume are already implied, obviously.)

Re:

[rtb61]

Where are they heading, why straight to the great contractor binge of 2020. No solutions just billions spent on reports, wads of paper and wads of paper full of bullshit but they will cost hundreds of millions to produce and be sold to the government for tens of billions. No results required, just the flow of bullshit leading to the emptying of the US treasury, good luck with this nonsense.

Re: What does the current trend in state leadershi

[Way Smarter Than You]

I'm sure the secret concentration camps are going public as soon as the day after Trump steals another election with the help of another $100k in Russian Facebook ads. Erm, yeah. You're not surprised. You're just wrong.

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. But what these specific people really want is being able to kill people, no matter where.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

No no, they can already do that. The big thing these days is to be able to kill people, no matter where, in 20 minutes or less.

Re:

[hey!]

Moon babes in silver catsuits and purple wigs.

Re:

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The Moon Babes look better without the tin foil catsuits:

Nude on the Moon [wikipedia.org]

The Space Force might be able to use this as a recruiting film.

"cislunar space" ...

[CaptainDork]

... most searched term by /. members in 2019.

Re:

[Anachronous Coward]

I didn't look it up, I just assumed it was the opposite of translunar.

Re:

[110010001000]

You shouldn't assume anything. You don't know even if the moon wants to be called "lunar".

Re: "cislunar space" ...

[Way Smarter Than You]

The moon may self identify however s/z/h/e/it choose at any moment or even multiply identify with contradictory self definitions. You are a s/z/h/e/t/q/b/-phobe if you disagree. You are being deplatformed as we speak just for implying there might be another option.

Re:

[rmdingler]

Came here for a laugh and was not disappointed.

*Which* opposite, though?

[BAReFO0t]

Along which hyperplane? In which manifold?

I'm still not even sure what "dual" precisely means in mathematics.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

That's easy. A dual is a relationship between mathematical objects that allows you to use an (apparently) completely different formalism to get the right answer, and in the process make your instructor/reviewers/colleagues say "WTF?"

Simply stated, it's one of the best methods for generalists to use to troll specialists.

Re:

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . and here I thought that it was just yet another new show in the popular series, "CSI: Lunar" . . .

Just wait

[quonset]

At some point they'll be asking for a highly mobile, bipedal armored suit capable of firing beam weapons and using a sword for close quarters combat.

Why? What hoodlums are lurking there?

[BAReFO0t]

You know those space Nazis were just a movie, since you literally hired all the space-aspiring Nazis back in the days, right? ;)

So even if they were real, the usual job of turning them into future enemies by way of 'allies' "gone astray", to justify keeping your outrageous budget, while Americans (e.g. students) are literally starving, would not have even been necessary.

I know you so long for a REAL enemy, like them, again. ... Cause you are the greatest. ... And bestest. .. Who's a good force? ... Yes you

Re: Why? What hoodlums are lurking there?

[Way Smarter Than You]

Lol, who is starving? What enemies? Wtf are you talking about? That sort of parsed but only in the sense that Elizabot responses parse most of the time. But, really, I'm posting because I'm -really- want a hit of whatever you're on. Where can I get some?

Request For Pork

[AmazingRuss]

This is the plot for Idiocracy II : The Final Frontier

That's No Moon

[YetAnotherDrew]

It's a space station!

Still Master Of Your Domain?

[nospam007]

Queen of the castle!

WTH is up with all these ridiculous comments?

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

I'm hoping that since this was posted late at night, no one of any serious mindset was posting. Anyway, this fits along with the idea that everything in space doesn't need to be some super-expensive, bespoke technology made in 20+ different states by 200+ contractors. This is in line with Bridenstine's American Space Renaissance Act [congress.gov], which is pretty much why he got the job as NASA administrator. I'm no Trump supporter, and I despise most of his cabinet posts...but Bridenstine is IMHO the best one he has made, and I think one of the only that has lasted without any scandals, f*ckups, or doing something to destroy his own agency on purpose. He actually changed his position, publicly, on the impact of humans on climate change after being shown the vast amount of evidence NASA has; no other Trump appointee has moved in that direction.

IMHO he carries on the traditions of Gordon Cooper, William Pogue, Owen Garriott, Shannon Lucid, John Herrington; all who are astronauts from Oklahoma. Not that they make up for the idiocracy of Scott Pruitt or James Inhofe; but these people show that at least Oklahoma can produce smart, strong people who are eager to explore the Final Frontier.

Proposal! I'll give you a proposal.

[slick7]

I propose you release all classified patents rather than bleeding the people to death with taxes. Stop wasting money and people on stupid, useless wars. End the greed, audit the central banks, end the Fed, the IMF. Get the US out of the UN and get the UN out of the US. Severely curtail the banksters. Any country that wants war should fight their opponent country in a walled area. Fight to the death, when one side wins, they should be exterminated as well. Let this be a lesson for everyone else that wants to