Chinese scientists look to AI to dodge space junk in crowded near-Earth environment
- Project will create AI algorithms to autonomously monitor space debris, which poses increasing risks to space missions
- The European Space Agency started training AI to avoid orbital debris a few years ago, and has urged the global AI community to help develop such systems
Led by scientists at the Xian Satellite Control Centre in northwestern China, the project aims to create AI algorithms that will autonomously monitor and help to avoid space debris in the increasingly crowded near-Earth environment, according to the state-backed PLA Daily.
The project is among more than a dozen approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology this year, as part of an annual grant of around 500 million yuan (US$74 million) aimed at securing China’s role as a leader in AI technologies.
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“We’ll use our decade-long expertise in space collision avoidance and debris mitigation, and pool experts from across the country to answer China’s strategic needs,” project principal investigator Jiang Yu told the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
“More specifically, we are going to investigate AI paradigms with regard to the monitoring of multi-scale space debris, debris environment evolution, and space situational awareness.”
The project will see China follow the lead of the European Space Agency, which started training AI to avoid orbital debris a few years ago.
The ESA has created a large data set of historical collision warnings, and asked the global AI community to help develop a system that would eventually autonomously dodge space junk.