SPACEWAYS: European Ways Forward for Space Traffic Management

Description of the Project

The space sector has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. According to current estimates, this activity will accelerate rapidly and its impact will require new technical guidelines and best practices to ensure the long-term sustainability of this environment.

One example is the increase in the number of nations using government space systems or the emergence of new private actors, either for the development of huge satellite constellation or for the promotion of new sub-orbital activities. These new developments will undoubtedly have direct and indirect impacts on space traffic. The main effect will be the existence of a much larger number of objects in orbit, which will have a major impact on current space operations and will require new technological developments in terms of tracking and monitoring of satellites and orbital objects (SSA, Space Situational Awareness / SST, Space Surveillance and Tracking). It can also be anticipated that new space actors will adopt different practices for collision avoidance and information exchange. The lack of common legislation will be another major problem to be solved. In this respect, Europe will have to adapt its strategies to protect its interests and maintain its ability to access and use space autonomously.

The main objective of the SPACEWAYS project is to provide recommendations and guidelines to the European Commission on the creation of Space Traffic Management (STM). To this end, the project will analyze and characterize the current STM context and anticipate the changes and challenges required to address this need.

Thus, SPACEWAYS will focus on two main aspects of STM:

o An analysis of European capabilities and current technology gaps.

o A policy, legal and economic assessment in this domain, which will ultimately lead to recommendations and guidelines.

As a basis for this analysis, SPACEWAYS will make use of the concepts and strategies developed in the field of ATM (Air Traffic Management), taking advantage of the lessons learned during all these years of development and the possible synergies with STM.

Industrial Partners

Indra's Role

Indra participates within this consortium in different work packages in order to provide recommendations and guidelines to the European Commission on space traffic management (STM). Its experience in radar technologies for tracking and detection of objects in orbit (SST/SSA) and areas such as air traffic management (ATM) will be key to this new development.

The main objectives addressed in these work packages are:

- Relationship building with future customers (institutions, operators and R&D).

- Assessment of the legal and political framework.

- Assessment of the technical capabilities in Europe within the STM.

- Propose strategies and best practices based on lessons learned from air traffic management (ATM).

- Dissemination of guidelines and recommendations.

Universities and Technology centres

Technologies used

In a first approach, the STM will use data derived from available technical capabilities such as radar and telescope. These detectors are capable of tracking satellites in different orbits, including, among others, low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). In turn, SPACEWAYS will assess all existing European capabilities and provide an analysis of the technology needs to be developed to meet STM requirements. In this sense SpaceWays will guide the future investments to be made in this field within Europe.

Another major challenge associated with STM is the distribution of information between the different actors and how to manage decision-making. These needs shape the communication network to manage space traffic in the same way as today's air traffic management.

More information

This project, with reference nº H2020-101004208 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.