A space startup in Irvine, CA known as Turion Space has just won a $1.9 million contract from SpaceWERX to develop a family of spacecraft capable of performing autonomous docking and deorbiting maneuvers for other spacecraft. This is not the first spacecraft Turion will have developed – the company successfully launched its first 32kg satellite in June of 2023. The CEO of Turion Space has aspirations to reveal plans for the new spacecraft as early as 2026. The concept of this program will feature a Droid mothership that hosts other satellites known as “micro-droids”. These micro-droids will be equipped with the technology to grapple other objects in space – such as debris. Turion’s long-term goal is to provide a space debris removal service. This service does not yet exist, but with the culmination of many spacecraft in constellation-type orbits, the need for this service is ever-increasing. The company expects to produce 45 satellites annually by 2027.

Turion appears to be a small company that produces extremely cheap spacecraft. While the company’s vision is critical for the continued population of spacecraft into Earth orbit, there are some serious cybersecurity concerns with launching satellites with the capability to grapple other spacecraft and move them into new orbits. A small or cheap satellite would typically offer the highest susceptibility to a cyber attack – as there would likely be zero consideration for cyber implications during the design. While it is true that most satellites in orbit are hackable, these micro droids would provide hackers with immense capabilities to perform cyber attacks on all sorts of spacecraft. If a hacker can get into one droid, they can likely get into all droids within the mothership. If all droids are then programmed to find nearby satellites and put them into collision courses with one another, this could provide a major concern. I could foresee nation-state or terrorist group threat actors pursuing these types of endeavors. On the other hand, I could also see thrill groups pursuing a similar endeavor, only perhaps putting spacecraft into new orbits rather than collision courses since they might not want to cause physical damage to the hardware. Hopefully the micro-droids are designed with some level of cyber implications in mind.

Turion wins Space Force contract for debris-capture technology