The Space Situational Awareness (SSA) student team at EPFL is dedicated to developing
methods for tracking space objects and monitoring orbital debris to prevent satellite collisions
and promote space sustainability. The team works with two telescopes—one with a 36 cm
diameter and the other with a 13 cm diameter—and is in the process of building a cupola to
house the telescopes. This...
NASA recently launched its Advanced Composite Solar Sail technology demonstration mission. In late August, the 12U CubeSat deployed four 7 m long composite booms to span an ~80 m2 solar sail with an edge length of 9 m, consisting of four 20 m2 aluminized polyethylene terephthalate (PET) solar sail quadrants. The spacecraft is on a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit (DD-SSO) at about 1000 km...
The ever-growing competition in space exploration has led to the accumulation of a great number of space debris in orbit, which constitutes a threat to active satellites, manned missions and the future of space exploration. To complement ground based Space Situational Awareness (SSA) networks composed of surveillance telescopes, radars and laser stations there is a growing interest in using...
Within the last two decades, the number of objects in Earth orbits increased from around 7500 to more than 30000 in 2023. The current satellites heavily rely on one-time use. To prevent further congestion of crucial orbits, more sustainable practices for space use are imperative. Refuelling satellites in orbit extends their lifespan and reduces debris accumulation by decreasing the number of...
The broad topic of space sustainability is increasingly being discussed within the space sector, especially in Europe, in part thanks to regulations on sustainability reporting and the upcoming European Space Law. Nevertheless, companies nowadays have a tendency to put the emphasis on a single particular chosen aspect of sustainability (e.g. environmental impacts, dark and quiet skies...
The deployment and operation of large constellations of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites is creating great challenges for the science of astronomy and is even producing effects on the appearance of the night sky. A large number of satellites reflecting sunlight can appear as “moving stars” in the night sky or as very bright “trails” in optical astronomy observations. Radio astronomy is also...
Switzerland has a significant stake in preserving dark and quiet skies due to its active role in global astronomical research and its industrial contributions to space technology. Swiss astronomers actively contribute to multiple large-scale observatories and research initiatives, including SKAO, CTAO, MeerKAT, MWA,HIRAX, and ngEHT, which are negatively impacted by the RFI emitted from...
The demand for spectral resources, both on the ground but in particular also in space, has dramatically increased in the last decades due to new technologies and easier access to space. While radio quiet zones were an effective measure for protecting observatories against unwanted interference in the past, this is no longer sufficient in the era of satellite megaconstellations. The Committee...
As space activity grows exponentially, the orbital environment is becoming increasingly congested with active satellites, inactive spacecraft, and debris of varied sizes and shapes. Ensuring the sustainability of future space missions amid this swarm of objects demands precise knowledge of each object’s position, shape, and rotational state.
Despite the significant efforts by space...
For billions of years, the celestial sphere has acted as a universal clock and reliable map for life on Earth. As a result, many terrestrial species have evolved to regulate their biological functions and behaviors by the regular cycles of sunlight and moonlight (i.e., photocycles) and navigate by recognizable patterns in the night sky. These celestial patterns and cycles are so fundamentally...
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, has developed substantial expertise and innovative technologies and facilities across three key technical domains: accelerators, detectors, and computing. To facilitate the transfer and use of the produced innovation to the benefit of society, CERN’s Knowledge Transfer group (KT) fosters collaborations to develop applications in sectors...
The ESA/AIUB Expert Centre for Space Safety offers a range of services to its users and stakeholders in Space Situational Awareness/ Space Traffic Management domain. It has been developed within ESA Space Safety Programme (S2P) and is hosted and operated by the Astronomical Institute, University of Bern. The Expert Centre provides subject matter expertise and operational services to coordinate...
At ClearSpace we implement our corporate strategy by means of offering a curated suite of services tailored to the emerging In-Orbit Servicing (IOS) market. To enable those services, we develop cutting-edge capabilities besides the more traditional space system building blocks required and available. This paper will highlight the services we’ve identified, along with the key enabling...
Terrestrial reference frames (TRFs) are at the heart of metrology and all monitoring processes related to Earth Observation. A high-quality TRF is the indispensable fundamental basis to allow for a long-term consistent monitoring of changes in the Earth system. The importance of highly accurate, stable and sustainable reference frames has been recognized by the A/RES/69/266 United Nations...
Future space activities such as in-orbit construction, debris removal and far side lunar exploration require greatly improved autonomy. This increased autonomy is largely expected to be driven by a foundation of neural networks within space systems. Proximal pose estimation of non-cooperative targets is a key enabling technology, but with many challenges to address. In particular, (1)...
