China plans to arm Tiangong space station with self-defence bots: scientist

China is developing a rapid-response space defence system to intercept suspicious spacecraft and push them away, according to a senior scientist.

If an unidentified object approaches China’s Tiangong space station or other critical space infrastructure, a small robotic thruster could be deployed to latch onto the intruder and push it to a safer distance, said Sun Zhibin of the National Space Science Centre in Beijing.

“Sometimes another spacecraft may deliberately come close – maybe just to take a look – but it can still interfere with our operations,” Sun said during a public talk on the technological progress and plans for Tiangong, at Nanjing University of Science and Technology on Tuesday.

“In such cases, we first try to assess their intent. Then we choose how to respond – whether by dodging, adjusting our orbit, or releasing a small robot to grab and redirect the object,” he said while answering questions from the audience.

According to the submission, Starlink-1095 and Starlink-2305 descended from their usual 550km (342-mile) orbits and entered Tiangong’s operational zone around 380km, prompting emergency avoidance actions on July 1 and October 21.

Harvard astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell confirmed the encounters using US space tracking data, estimating that the Starlink satellite might have come within just 3km in the October incident.

South China Morning Post