Published 13:38 IST, September 17th 2020
Indian-origin minister Alok Sharma announces UK's £1M investment to tackle space debris
UK's Indian-origin minister Alok Sharma announced an investment of GBP one million in a bid to tackle the dangers presented by space debris to satellites.
UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Alok Sharma on September 16 announced an investment of GBP one million in a bid to tackle the dangers presented by space debris to satellites. The Indian-origin minister confirmed that the government investment amount will be divided between seven projects that will develop new sensor technology or artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor hazardous space debris.
The UK government along with the country’s space agency and Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed the formal agreement, saying that it contributes to Britain’s opportunity to benefit from mega-constellations of satellites. Additionally, the space agency and MoD have also signed an agreement to work together on monitoring hazards in orbit. The officials will also be tracking so-called ‘space junk’ which could pose a threat to the International Space Station (ISS) and its crew.
Sharma said, “Millions of pieces of space junk orbiting the earth present a significant threat to UK satellite systems which provide the vital services that we all take for granted - from mobile communications to weather forecasting”.
He added, “By developing new AI and sensor technology, the seven pioneering space projects we are backing today will significantly strengthen the UK's capabilities to monitor these hazardous space objects, helping to create new jobs and protect the services we rely on in our everyday lives”.
The officials have estimated that there are approximately 160 million objects in orbit, which daily consists of debris - which could collide with satellites. The UK government informed that only a fraction of this debris can currently be tracked and avoided by working satellites. They further added that it has a significant opportunity to benefit from the new age of satellite mega-constellations, which is a vast network made up of hundreds or even thousands of spacecraft.
Graham Turnock, who is the Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency, said, “In this new age of space megaconstellations the UK has an unmissable opportunity to lead the way in monitoring and tackling this space junk. This funding will help us grasp this opportunity and in doing so create sought after expertise and new high skill jobs across the country”.
Projects that are being offered funding
The projects that are receiving support include Lift Me Off, who will develop and test machine learning algorithms to distinguish between satellites and space debris, and Fujitsu who are combining machine learning and quantum-inspired processing to improve mission planning to remove debris. Two other companies, Deimos and Northern Space and Security, will be developing a new optical sensor to track space objects from the UK, while Andor will enhance their astronomy camera in a bid to track and map ever-smaller sized debris.
Another company, D-Orbit UK will use a space-based sensor on their recently launched satellite platform to capture images of space objects and couple with the Passive Bistatic radar techniques developed by the University of Strathclyde. Meanwhile, the government also informed that two further projects are yet to have their funding confirmed.
(With PTI inputs)
Updated 13:38 IST, September 17th 2020