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Isro-PRL's observatory at Mt Abu to track space junk
AHMEDABAD: Silently, atop the Guru Shikhar observatory in hill station Mount Abu, a team of Isro and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) scientists are putting together a new facility to track space junk or space debris - a global problem pegged to attain dangerous proportions in coming years.
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The facility will house a one-metre wide telescope with carefully crafted optics and back-end instruments assembled by Isro's Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems (LEOS) in Bengaluru.
The new observatory, widely categorized as the Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (EODSS) system, will track space debris-- mainly consisting of inactive satellites, electronic parts of instruments, leftovers from rocket launch and other such junk.
Currently, Isro uses international space debris data and catalogue to maneuver satellites out of harm's way. In past seven years, there have been at least 12 instances when Indian satellites had to be maneuvered out of danger suspecting a collision with space junk.
Quelle: THE TIMES OF INDIA
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