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In this project the authors look at event-based sensing and processing for space situational awareness (SSA). Many advantages exist with the new paradigm of neuromorphic engineering, the authors investigate: If event-based optical data is suitable for the task and if processing with Spiking Neural Networks (SNN) provides advantages in terms of efficiency and efficacy. With the implementation of a novel heterogeneous LIF SNN, authors claim to surpass the state of the art in event-based SSA with a 15% increase in accuracy.

With the “democratisation of space”, and the proliferation of large non-geostationary orbit (NGO) constellations, the pace at which human-made objects are being deployed in orbit demands urgent action in defining and supporting a global Space Traffic Management (STM) plan. Promptly identifying, tracking, and cataloguing of resident space objects (RSOs), in particular after orbit insertion or break-up and fragmentation events, as the recent Russian anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test put in evidence, is of critical importance to enable a safe and sustainable use of space.

This project, renamed ACROSS (Asteroid Collaborative Research by Occultation Systematic Survey), aimed at considerably improving the predictability of stellar occultations by small and difficult targets such as the Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs). In particular, it focused on the binary asteroid 65803 Didymos, target of the DART (NASA) and Hera (ESA) missions, and other NEAs: either secondary targets of Hera, or NEAs whose orbit is accurate enough. Stellar occultations are an unbeatable approach to:

Space Based Solar Power concepts promise the generation of large amounts of renewable power by launching vast Solar Power Satellites (SPS) into space and beaming the power back to rectennas on Earth. Due to diffraction physics, large scale arrays delivering 2GW of power to the ground will be on the order of a kilometre in length and have masses between 2,000 and 10,000 tonnes. As of January 2020, the amount of debris orbiting the Earth exceeded 8,000 metric tonnes.