The UK Space Agency (UKSA) is looking to tackle the issue of space junk – seven UK companies have been awarded a share of £1m of funding to help track debris in space.

UK Space Agency funds projects to tackle space debris
UKSA estimates that there are currently 160 million objects in orbit – mainly debris – that could collide with satellites providing services we use every day.
The seven projects will develop sensor technology – or artificial intelligence – to monitor hazardous space debris. They are: Lumi Space, Deimos, Lift Me Off, D-Orbit, Fujitsu, NORSS and Andor

D-Orbit, for example, is pictured above. Using Passive Bistatic radar techniques developed by the University of Strathclyde, it will provide a new way to observe debris, capturing images of space objects for processing in space and on the ground.

“People probably do not realise just how cluttered space is. You would never let a car drive down a motorway full of broken glass and wreckages, and yet this is what satellites and the space station have to navigate every day in their orbital lanes,” said Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency.
“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.”
The funding coincides with the signing of a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Defence and UK Space Agency to work together on “space domain awareness”. That is to say, a civil and military collaboration aiming to bring together data and analysis from defence, civil and commercial space users. This is to better understand what is happening in orbit to ensure the safety or security of UK satellites.
The seven projects, described in more detail by the UKSA, are:
Lumi Space

Lumi Space are working on photonic technologies for ranging and characterisation of space objects, from satellites down to space debris. Satellite laser ranging is an ideal method for precise tracking of space objects, and innovations developed by Lumi enable high-performance, low-cost systems to do this. This project is for continuation of Lumi R&D.
Deimos

This project focuses on the design, prototyping and demonstration of a Low-Cost LEO Optical Surveillance Sensor. The core work is an integrated processing board to conduct all necessary image calibration and data extraction operations used as a standalone or multiple-aperture “multiple-eye” design. A ‘40×40 squared degrees one-eye’ prototype will be built together with the software systems to control and process the images and will be demonstrated during an observation campaign. In the final solution, ‘’9 eyes’’ will be combined.
Lift Me Off

The project is concerned with developing machine learning algorithms for in-orbit detection and classification of satellites and space debris using a combination of space-based sensors and artificial intelligence. The technology will be able to distinguish between satellites operating nominally and anomalously together with understanding the composition of space debris on-orbit. A prototype test bed with representative sensors, electronics and algorithms will be built to experimentally develop the concept and techniques which can be later scaled up to an end-to-end autonomous algorithm for detection of anomalous behaviour that can, similarly to air traffic control, raise warnings based on live information.
D-Orbit

D-Orbit UK will exploit a new capability to enable routine, targeted space-based LEO SST observations using D-Orbit’s ION Satellite Carrier Vessel, a platform with a multi-year lifetime and propulsion capability, to offer an unprecedented opportunity to observe debris both passively and actively. ION star trackers will be repurposed to capture images of space objects for processing on board and on ground, coupled with Passive Bistatic radar techniques developed by the University of Strathclyde, which uses third party illuminators to characterise resident space objects. NORSS will process, associate, integrate and support the commercialisation of the data within wider SST services.
Fujitsu

Fujitsu, in conjunction with its partners, Astroscale, the University of Glasgow and Amazon Web Services (AWS), are undertaking a project to develop a proof of value to make space debris removal missions more commercially viable using its open innovation methodology. It will be evaluating how to optimise trajectory planning for multi-debris removal missions. Fujitsu is bringing together its ground-breaking quantum inspired optimisation services, which benchmark studies prove are up to 10,000 times faster than traditional computers, along with a 40 year heritage in space in Japan. In combination with Astroscale’s space debris removal expertise, the University of Glasgow’s space research capabilities and AWS Cloud and Machine Learning services, the project will support the UK’s ambition to grow its share of the global space market to 10% by 2030.
NORSS

The project involves the industrial research to rapidly design and deploy an extremely low-cost prototype optical camera system to track objects in Low Earth Orbit. Designed from the ground up, the sensor will be competitive with radar observations for providing both UK independent space surveillance and tracking data and characterisation data of objects. The project is split into 6 phases and once deployed the camera will perform a live observation campaign acquiring positional and photometry data on space objects culminating with a validation exercise against a real-world experimental debris removal mission operated by Astroscale.
Andor

Detection of Low Earth Orbit debris of smaller sizes is of increasing importance due to the ongoing increases in quantities of both Satellites and potentially satellite destroying in-orbit debris. Traditional CCD cameras have a significant (40 second) read out ‘dead time’ which considerably limits their application in detection of small in-orbit debris. The proposed project is intended to make significant improvements to Andor’s Balor very large area (17 megapixel / 70mm diagonal) scientific CMOS camera. Balor is ideal for large sky surveys that measure photometric and astrometric variability across timescales ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds. The proposed project will significantly increase Balor’s sensitivity resulting in considerably faster imaging and/or enabling the tracking of smaller in-orbit debris.