'Crazy idea' succeeds: Scientists monitor space junk with radio telescopes

'Crazy idea' succeeds: Scientists monitor space junk with radio telescopes

Radio telescopes are designed to listen for signals from the stars and from distant galaxies, but scientists are also pointing out that these instruments can also track objects somewhat closer to home: junk in Earth's orbit.Engineers have used the famed radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in the U.K. as part of an international plan to watch high-altitude space debris. Normally, old satellites and bits of spacecraft stuck up in geostationary orbit a…

How Existing Radio Telescopes Are Being Repurposed to Protect Earth’s Space Infrastructure - Commonwealth Union

Science & Technology (Commonwealth Union) – Repurposing science is responsible for a variety of innovations for medicines to Radar which was initially used during war times to detect hostile planes and boats ended up being widely used in airports. A world-first technology demonstration has shown that existing scientific infrastructure can be repurposed to improve the monitoring of hostile satellites and dangerous space debris. Researchers have a…