UArizona Students Present Space4 Expertise at VOLTRON

Feb. 23, 2023

Students supported by the Space4 Center presented on an array of approaches to identify and track objects in cislunar space.

Image
Photo of participants representing Space4 at VOLTRON

Presenting at the 4th annual VOLTRON workshop in El Paso, students supported by the Space4 Center showed how optical telescope and innovative passive radio observations plus expertise using machine learning make UArizona the academic leader in identifying and tracking objects in cislunar space – the space between Earth and the Moon and the area around the Moon.

As humanity enters a new era of lunar exploration, more space junk like spent rocket bodies, defunct satellites and mission-related debris will be left in cislunar space, creating potentially hazardous conditions for astronauts and spacecraft in the future. During the workshop, students presented Space4 research aimed at achieving safer and more sustainable use of cislunar orbital space. 

The VOLTRON workshop series aims to bridge the gap between laboratory-based experiments and spectrally resolved observations of resident space objects with the intent of determining the limits, practicality, and exploitability of color photometry and spectroscopy as a space-domain awareness tool. The workshop provides a forum that brings together researchers from academia, government laboratories, FFRDCs, UARCs and industry to discuss recent advances in these fields.