More than 5,000 launches since the start of the space age, each carrying satellites for Earth observation, or communications, for example, have resulted in space becoming increasingly congested.

 

This is why the problem of space debris is becoming increasingly urgent: in addition to an hazardous space environment, large objects, such as dismissed satellites, rocket parts, etc., can re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in an uncontrolled way, creating risks to the safety of people and things on Earth.

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NT R&D activities focus on the study and development of a “multi sensor data fusion” platform (i.e. merging data acquired from different sensors) to be used in the field of space debris monitoring, based on processing of data and images produced by a heterogeneous and distributed sensor network such as:

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• Optical Systems operating in both the visual and InfraRed spectrum

• Radar systems at different frequencies