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In
an attempt to keep space debris from destroying million-dollar projects in
Earth orbit, Lockheed Martin is teaming up with an Australian company to track
potentially dangerous wreckage, RT reports.
The defense and aerospace company will
develop a new tracking system capable of monitoring pieces of space junk as
small as a baseball currently soaring through the Earth’s low orbit. Lockheed
Martin will be working with Australia’s Electro Optic Systems (EOS) on the
project, which is scheduled to be operational in 2016, according to the Financial Times.
“Even
a tiny piece of space debris can seriously damage satellites worth hundreds of
millions of dollars,” said Craig Smith, the EOS CEO, to the
Times. “Our technology enables
us to track the most dangerous pieces of space junk and provide accurate data
to satellite operators, which should enable them to avoid collisions.”
In
a statement issued on Monday, Lockheed Martin stated the
proposed site will employ a suite of advanced sensors and software, as well as
lasers, to locate and track drifting space junk. If a piece of debris is found
to be particularly dangerous, then satellites can be moved in order to stay out
of harm’s way.
"We'll
offer customers a clearer picture of the objects that could endanger their
satellites, and do so with great precision and cost-effectiveness,”
said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
As
noted by the Wall Street Journal, the new project will tracking system
would be deployed alongside the US Air Force’s Space Fence, which already
tracks about 200,000 pieces of debris. Since even space junk the size of a
marble – traveling at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour – can cause
significant damage to expensive satellites, monitoring Earth’s increasingly
crowded orbit.
"There
are up to 200 threats a day identified for orbiting satellites,"
said Lockheed Martin spokesman Trevor Thomas to the Journal. "Most satellites can sustain some
damage, but little bits of junk hit satellites every day and each, on average,
is worth around $500 million."
There
are up to 500,000 pieces of space junk circling the planet, believed to range
in size from that of a fingernail to a bowling ball. Typically, one of the
2,000 or so satellites in orbit are destroyed every year.
Of
course, Lockheed Martin isn’t the only company looking to tackle the growing
concern over space junk. As RT reported
earlier this year, Japan is currently testing a massive, magnetic “fishing net”
made of advanced metal fibers that could potentially capture space debris and
drag it down into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it would be incinerated. If the
tests are successful, the net could be deployed in 2019.
Russia
is also working on its own “space cleaner,” a spacecraft capable of
clearing 10 disabled satellites over the course of a six-month mission.
Additionally, EOS itself is
designing plasma lasers that would be able to destroy space junk, with similar
tech being developed in the United States.
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