Researchers develop low-cost technology to detect space debris

^{Translation: Diana Taborda}

A research team from the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) is developing low-cost space debris detection devices.

The project 'Space debris algorithms in satellite images for the characterisation and orbital determination of debris', by Joel Filho, a PhD student in Physical Engineering at the FCTUC Department of Physics (DF), has just been awarded €90,000 in funding from the European Space Agency (ESA).

Joel Filho explains, "We are developing a method to identify and characterise space debris in satellite images, using open source detection algorithms, able to determine its orbits on board satellites, by using the images they capture to determine their orientation in space, which are images that cannot be stored, but from which we can extract information about space debris before they are deleted."

The increasing concentration of "space junk" is the result of human activity in space. However, it poses a growing risk to space activities. It is now known that there are about 35,000 objects larger than 10 centimetres (cm) in diameter orbiting the Earth and that only 90% of their orbits are known.

According to Nuno Peixinho, a researcher at the DF and the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA), "This is exactly why the study of space debris is becoming a priority area of space science, in which FCTUC is closely involved. Ground-based radar and optical telescope techniques used to detect debris are limited by a size threshold and can only detect a tiny fraction of the total, so it is vital to evaluate the feasibility of detecting debris in space”.

Peixinho further adds that “the idea is to develop equipment that uses microcomputers with low-cost cameras, and the detection algorithm is already being developed by our PhD student. These low-cost surveillance Earth-to-space cameras have already been tested to determine if they can detect satellite trails, which are very similar to space debris, and the results are very promising”.

The research is being conducted under the supervision of Nuno Peixinho, Paulo Gordo from Synopsis Planet and CENTRA, and Rui Melício from the University of Évora. Joel Filho will carry out part of his thesis at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, where he will have the opportunity to work directly with Tim Flohrer, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office.