Australian scientist use "Rock and Roll" to track space junk

Scientists in Western Australia, working at the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in remote Boolardy, have found a way to use radio waves (from a youth station) to track space junk.

Professor Steven Tingay, chief investigator in the Australian Research Council Center for All-sky Astrophysics, has said: "We have shown that we are able to detect approximately 10 pieces of space junk simultaneously. Over time this means we are in a position to monitor a significant fraction of the space junk that is in Earth orbits,"

"An early warning system has the potential to protect the billions of dollars' worth of vital infrastructure orbiting the Earth but also prevent collisions that will result in even more space debris being generated, such as what happened in the case of the Iridium 33 satellite in 2009."

Space junk is an increasing problem. Mankind has been littering the heavens for over 50yrs. NASA has had to upgrade rocketry control systems on the International Space Station so that it can now dodge debris in six hours.