World-first demonstration of next-generation technology shows repurposing science infrastructure can track hostile satellites and hazardous space debris.
76-metre Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory (Photo: University of Manchester)
Scientists have successfully demonstrated a breakthrough in how sensitive radio telescopes can be used to significantly improve the world's ability to detect, track and characterise satellites and space debris in orbit.
An international research team, led by the University of Birmingham, has delivered a real-time demonstration repurposing existing scientific and commercial infrastructure as independent radar receivers to dramatically enhance the performance of current space surveillance systems.
Traditional radar systems can track objects in low earth orbit (LEO) but detecting satellites and debris at geostationary orbit (GEO), some 37,000km from Earth, requires extremely powerful transmitters.
LBMR also provides a unique platform to advance radar technologies, validate new sensing concepts, and train the next generation of RF and radar engineers. Building and retaining this expertise is key to developing the capabilities needed to detect, track, and identify space objects. This will help to protect critical space infrastructure - ensuring the safe and sustainable use of space for the future.
GEO hosts many of the world's most critical space assets, including military, government and commercial communications, navigation and weather satellites. Protecting these high-value systems requires a clear and continuous picture of what is happening in space.
This means being able to spot, track and identify all objects nearby - whether they are working satellites, inactive spacecraft, or other objects - so that operators can make informed decisions and respond quickly to potential risks.
Funded by the UK Space Agency, the Long Baseline Multistatic Radar (LBMR) project incorporates radio telescopes into existing radar systems can increase sensitivity more than tenfold - enabling the detection of smaller objects at greater distances.
Professor Marco Martorella, from the University of Birmingham, said: "The successful demonstration of LBMR marks an important step towards using this technology operationally to monitor satellites and debris around our planet.
“LBMR also provides a unique platform to advance radar technologies, validate new sensing concepts, and train the next generation of RF and radar engineers. Building and retaining this expertise is key to developing the capabilities needed to detect, track, and identify space objects. This will help to protect critical space infrastructure - ensuring the safe and sustainable use of space for the future.”
The research partnership - comprising of experts from the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester, Goonhilly Earth Station, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, and Australia's national science agency CSIRO - demonstrated the capability live at the European Space Agency's ECSAT facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire.
During the event, representatives from government, defence and industry observed radar detections and measurements being processed in real time.
The demonstration used major UK scientific infrastructure, including the 76-metre Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory and the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope network, as well as the 30m GES satellite communication antenna illustrating how research and commercial facilities can be repurposed to address emerging national security and space sustainability challenges.
Dr Chris Blount at the UK Space Agency said: “The LMBR project has been a fantastic example of innovation and collaboration by incredible UK and international talent, and an exemplar case of the capability multiplication through collaboration the International Bilateral Fund (IBF) seeks to achieve.
“The LBMR team have taken the thorny challenge of real time on-demand monitoring of space objects on geostationary orbit, and through proactive partnering and an innovative application of existing world class UK assets, have been able to demonstrate a state of the art, dual use by design, capability.
“This has been achieved without the extensive investment, time, and effort a dedicated facility would have otherwise needed, and even surpasses the capability such a facility would yield. This is exactly the innovation and engineering excellence UKSA and the IBF seeks to promote, and is a key step towards a capability to make the UK and our international partners safer and better able to respond to the challenges of a congested and contested space.”
The project has brought together partners from the UK, United States, and Australia to overcome key challenges in synchronising, distributed sensing and real-time processing.
Dr. Jason Guicheteau, Chair of NATO Sensing Technology Scientific Technical Committee said: “The successful live demonstration of the LBMR is a testament to the power of allied collaboration, showcasing the transition of foundational science into a tangible, operational capability originating out of NATO Science and Technology Organization research task groups."
Professor Gaven Smith, CB FREng, University of Manchester and former Chief Technology Officer, GCHQ, said: “This is a compelling example of how research facilities and skills can be applied to the challenge of protecting important UK assets in space against a range of natural and potentially hostile threats. The need for these capabilities is becoming increasing urgent, and this application of radio telescopes shows how powerful capabilities can be developed rapidly and cost-effectively within the UK, by leveraging our research base.”
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Chair in RF and Space Sensing
Staff profile for Professor Marco Martorella.
