FPI / September 20, 2024
By Richard Fisher
U.S. Space Force Commander Gen. B. Chance Saltzman used his Sept. 17 keynote address to the 2024 Air, Space, Cyber Symposium of the United States Air Force Association to highlight U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s imperative that the Space Force prepare for “Great Power Competition” and build a “resilient and effective space order of battle.”
Tucked away in an adjunct hallway apart from the large main exposition technology display was a new space company that could play a huge role in realizing the U.S. Space Force’s ambition to seek the ability to achieve “control” in space.
The Japanese space robotics startup company GITAI was founded in Japan in 2016 by former IBM employee Sho Nakanose, who also developed his company’s space robotic arm technology. GITAI describes itself as a developer of “highly capable, safe, and reliable robots to help build and maintain satellites, space stations, lunar bases, and cities on Mars.”
In Japan, GITAI secured a June 2021 joint research contract with Toyota to develop a robotic arm for its pressurized manned “Lunar Cruiser” moon rover and then demonstrated its robotic arm technology inside the International Space Station in October 2021.
According to a GITAI official at the 24 Air, Space, Cyber Symposium, in October 2023 GITAI shifted its headquarters from Tokyo to Torrance, California, becoming a U.S. company, to take advantage of greater business opportunities with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Defense (DoD).
In December 2023, DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected GITAI for a 10-year Lunar Architecture Capability Study (LunA-10) for “developing foundational technology concepts that move toward a series of shareable, scalable systems that interoperate and optimize lunar infrastructure,” according to GITAI.
One of GITAI’s proposals, on display in model form at 24 Air, Space, Cyber, was an “on orbit service” satellite with robotic arms, intended to refuel or repair U.S. or other satellites, or to remove space debris by capturing it and then moving it to a less dangerous orbit.
While GITAI officials would not comment on this possibility, GITAI’s on orbit service satellite could conceivably perform proximity surveillance operations or even intelligence capture or removal operations against enemy satellites.
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