The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has launched a potential four-year program designed to detect, characterize and track small debris in space.
The Space Debris Identification and Tracking program intends to identify space debris as small as 1 millimeter and improve debris tracking using ground-based radars, optical sensors, tracking satellites and other existing sensors, IARPA said Wednesday.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Naval Research Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory are part of the test and evaluation team of the SINTRA program.
“Given the rapid increase in space activity worldwide-both government and commercial-and the current state of orbital debris, small debris tracking is needed to ensure safe equipment and crew operations,” said Alexis Truitt, SINTRA program manager.