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Observatory near Canberra to get $150m centre to combat space junk

Tuesday, 11. March 2014 - 16:26

A NEW $150 million centre to combat the growing scourge of space junk will be set up at Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra. Scientists have warned that the 300,000 pieces of debris already circling the globe could mass together creating a devastating avalanche of junk, similar to that depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Gravity, that could potentially take out most satellites in space.

In the film, space junk from a destroyed satellite slams into a shuttle leaving two astronauts adrift in space. On its second orbit the debris causes further havoc. The Space Environment Management Cooperative Research Centre will be run by Australian scientist Dr Ben Greene, a world expert in space junk and chief executive of EOS Space Systems. His firm tracks space junk and provides warnings of imminent collisions.

Dr Greene said the centre would build on Australian expertise in measurement, monitoring, analysis and management of space debris to preserve the space environment. ‘There are now more than 300,000 pieces of debris in earth orbit,’ he said. ‘There is now so much debris that it is colliding with itself, making an already big problem even bigger. A catastrophic avalanche of collisions that would quickly destroy all satellites is now possible.’

The centre will bring together space debris mitigation technologies and experts from around the world for the first time in the one place to workshop solutions to a problem that could cause global chaos and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The bulk of the world’s navigation, weather forecasting and communication systems rely on satellite technology and if space collisions continue on current trends the entire space environment could be rendered useless.

Australia is one of the world’s most space dependant nations, with satellites delivering security and services to an isolated population dispersed across a huge continent. The initial focus of the new centre will be to reduce the rate of collisions to minimise new debris before using ground based lasers to destroy the junk. Chair of the CRC board, Professor Mary O’Kane, said the work of the centre was fundamental to Australian society and its economy.

The Federal Government has contributed $20 million to the centre which has attracted $40 million from the participants that include the Japanese Government, the Australian National University, Lockheed Martin, Optus, NASA, RMIT and EOS Space Systems and another $90 million worth of research infrastructure.

Source: 
www.couriermail.com.au
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Mount Stromlo Observatory
space junk
technologies