Yep, definitely already on people's minds: "China’s use of its SJ-21 to remove a GEO satellite that had been shedding debris to a very high graveyard orbit in January 2022 has been repeatedly used as evidence that they can threaten other on-orbit satellites" [0]
The FAA does have licenses over launch and they are trying to impose rules for upper stages of launch vehicles [0]. The FAA said they would complete these regulations in 2025 [1], but I haven't seen something saying they have gone in to effect yet.
The FCC does deal with disposal requirements for US satellites that are launched. In order to secure a license from the FCC you have to prove that your satellite will meet the latest guideline that it will be disposed of (either de-orbit for LEO, or moved to disposal orbit for higher orbits) within 5 years after mission complete [2]. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to apply to upper stages for some reason even though I would say that it is an orbit object that gets licensed and would "complete the mission" after deploying the satellites and have to abide by the 5 year rule.
Yeah, no pretty looking shock diamonds in that exhaust. Which makes me thing the exhaust velocity is pretty low, which I'm not too surprised by since the throat of that engine looks pretty large. And the specific impulse (efficiency) of a rocket engine is directly tied to the effective exhaust velocity [0].
Still amazingly cool, but to the other questions on this thread I'm sure the performance is not comparable to an existing rocket engine design.
They are both about 3d printing rocket engines, but it's a bit of comparing apples and oranges.
- The linked article is about improving the speed of manufacturing with 3D printing. The linked article claimed that there was no need for any post-fabrication qualification and there was much skepticism in that claim. But they did perform a sub-orbital launch.
- This article is about improving speed in the design cycle. The article mentions after printing it was "post-processed at the University of Sheffield and prepared for the test". Here there is skepticism of the actual performance (namely efficiency) of the engine for practical purposes.
3D printing rocket engines themselves in and of itself is not a new thing. Rocket Labs has 3D printed rocket engines and has been flying them since 2018
I have also found that people use [strategic thing] as a way of keeping something at a higher level without going in to the details. Because once they get in to the details the grand plans start to break down.
I have been a part of a number of these high level strategy type efforts at my company. I have often found that I seem to be the cynical one against an onslaught of relentlessly optimistic people.
[0] https://spacenews.com/chinese-on-orbit-servicing-and-debris-...