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Space Debris Mitigation: Solutions from the Dark Skies of the Remote Australian Outback Using a Proposed Network of Mobile Astronomical Observatories

Presented by:

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

 Muhammad Akbar Hussain

    Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project

 

Muhammad Ayaz Hussain

    Ruhr University Bochum, Germany (PhD candidate)

 

Muhammad Mehdi Hussain

    Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project

 

Muhammad Waqar Haider

    Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project

 

Muhammad Ashraf Hussain

There are tens of thousands of undetected and uncatalogued pieces of space debris in the Low Earth Orbit. These are not only difficult to detect and track, their sheer number puts active satellites and humans space mission in danger. With the entry of more governments and private companies into harnessing the Earth’s orbit for communication, research and military purposes, there is an ever-increasing need to not only detect and catalogue these pieces of space debris, it is also time to take measures to take them out of the orbit and clean up the space around Earth. Current optical and radar-based Space Situational Awareness initiatives and space debris mitigation concepts are mainly aimed at preventing the creation of new debris by detecting and cataloguing relatively larger existing debris in the orbit and implementing collision avoidance measures for satellites. Smaller than 10 cm pieces of debris are in a relatively undetectable dark zone, yet these are deadly and capable of destroying satellites and human space missions. A synchronized network of mobile observatories deployed over a vast area and working as a single instrument will be able to detect small debris and achieve effective triangulation, enabling ground-based laser systems to help deorbit individual pieces of debris through a trace, track and tackle sequence. Such a network of mobile observatories can join ongoing global efforts in detection and removal of space debris from Earth’s orbit. This paper highlights the threat to orbital infrastructure uniquely posed by the 1-10 cm debris in Low Earth Orbit, how a network of mobile observatories deployed in the Australian Outback can achieve unprecedented precision in detection of this debris required to enable deorbiting through the use of ground-based lasers, equipment discussion, and basic engineering calculations to determine the feasibility of this concept in achieving the expected goals.

Category:

SSA

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