Orbits in Focus: A New Era of Space Traffic Management

Space is getting incredibly crowded. With over 40,000 tracked objects zipping around at ten times the speed of a bullet, managing our orbits has shifted from a traffic problem to a critical national security mission. In this episode, we discover Project Aemelia, a pioneering initiative funded by the UK Space Agency. We see how a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute and the University of Birmingham is rewriting the rules of Space Domain Awareness (SDA). Join host Amelia Jabry, Dr Victoria Nockles, Principal Investigator - Defence AI Research (DARe), and Professor Marina Gashinova, University of Birmingham, to explore: The Space-to-Space Challenge: Why observing fast-moving satellites from other satellites is an engineering hurdle of cosmic proportions. SAR vs. ISAR: How Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) is being used to map the 3D structures of uncooperative satellites, rockets, and orbital debris in real time. Autonomous Missions: How researchers on project Aemelia are going one step further and not just looking at new imaging systems, but designing fully-autonomous space missions. Whether it's defending vital communications satellites or dodging space debris, find out how autonomous digital twins are safeguarding our future above the clouds. Read more about Project Aemelia here: https://www.turing.ac.uk/news/new-ai-powered-tool-identify-threats-space-and-improve-national-security https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.06176 https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/eese/gashinova-marina   Chapter markers 0:00 Intro – the tricky problem of tracking satellites in space 1:44 What is space domain awareness? 3:20 How much space is there in space, or, where are the satellites? 4:30 How do you traditionally monitor satellites in space? 5:50 Introducing Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging (SAR) and how it works 7:20 The ‘space-to-space’ challenge 8:00 Now invert it: Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar imaging (I-SAR) 9:00 The challenge of using I-SAR in a space-to-space setting 10:40 dealing with extreme speeds in real-time 13:00 Introducing Project Aemelia 14:18 The multidimensional aspect of I-SAR: multistatic setups, varied polarisation, and high frequencies 17:40 Setting up an autonomous space mission as we move further and further from Earth 19:45 Applications of this new technology 22:30 The case of the inspector satellite: how to deal with threats in space 24:00 The second space race – an explosion of capability (cubesats and beyond) 26:20 Stop interfering! The electromagnetic interference problem 28:00 The journey behind AEMELIA – a successful marriage 31:00  What is next on the horizon for I-SAR and SDA? 32:30 A sci-fi anecdote 34:20 Where to find out more