The United Kingdom space agency now invites all experts in the industry to identify a smart solution in cleaning the outer space from debris. A lot of space junk are now roaming around space atmosphere that usually came from launched satellites or spacecraft. Unfortunately, the presence of floating debris in space may cause danger on the planet. Most of these cause space collisions that may be alarming once these objects turn into meteor-like items and get thrown in Earth.
Want to clean the outer space from debris? Here's your salary
BBC reported this week about the UK Space Agency (UKSA)'s plan to invest money amounting to over $1 million to anyone that has a smart idea on how to clean space from any junk or debris quickly.
Organizations will be able to bid for a maximum grant amount of $270,000 from the million pot money.
As said, there are an estimated 900,000 floating objects in space, from launched satellites or spacecraft. Some of these objects are larger than 1cm in size, and yet only a small portion of these items are being tracked by the agency.
"Space debris is a global problem, and this funding will enable U.K. companies to develop new methods to help tackle the issue. Growing our space surveillance and tracking capabilities will be crucial for U.K. space businesses to innovate safely and sustainably in the future," said on the announcement.
Space agencies need to track each debris in space to know where these objects are, and whether they are near an incoming launched satellite. Once a specific space junk gets untracked, there are possibilities of a massive collision between the junk and the incoming satellite or aircraft.
To prevent this from happening, UKSA is willing to pay individuals or groups that have any ideas on how to clean these objects away from space. Artificial intelligence is also one of the technologies that they depend on, with this proposal.
"We're looking to support new companies that want to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to better exploit the data that's already out there," explained Jacob Geer, the UKSA's head of space surveillance and tracking (SST). "But the second theme is around new ways to sense and track space objects - in low-Earth orbit (LEO) in particular, because it's in LEO that a lot of the new missions will be going."
Space missions will be operating more safely
Once the U.K. finds a successful way to have a junk-free space during the funding, the UKSA believes that the country will soon be leading space missions. Not only that, but organizations will be made sure that space missions will be operating safer compared today.
"What's exciting here is that if we can get this right; if we can get some assurance about operating safely, it will enable companies to push the boundaries of innovation even further in the types of new missions they intend to launch. If we're able to give them that support, they'll want to come to, and work from the U.K.," said Dr. Alice Bunn, the UKSA's international director.
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