Space Debris Quantum Imaging Service

卫星提供与通信、广播和地球观测有关的基本和极其可靠的服务。由于不断扩大的空间活动和探索，绕地球运行的碎片越来越多，这正在威胁卫星的安全和它们所提供服务的可靠性。一个微小的碎片与卫星相撞就足以损坏它并使其停止服务。因此，越来越需要改进对靠近卫星轨道移动的碎片及其精确轨迹的探测，以便能够及时进行避免碰撞的机动。本项目是一项利用量子成像改进空间碎片识别的可行性研究，目的是评估是否可以在商业上可行的基础上向卫星运营商提供提高精度的服务。它将由卫星运营商Avanti和伯明翰大学量子成像小组组成的财团执行。从Avanti提供的问题的精确技术定义开始，伯明翰大学将严格评估最近的建议，以改进量子激光雷达系统中光对远程物体的探测，并在此基础上构建解决方案。这些建议将依赖于光的量子特性，例如提供探测隐藏在环境光中的小光信号的能力，在不增加噪声的情况下放大小信号以更容易探测，以及在光和微波之间进行转换以结合激光雷达和雷达的优点。最终解决方案在卫星工业背景下的实用性和商业可行性将由Avanti进行评估。该项目侧重于空间碎片探测的具体问题，但我们将考虑的方法是一般性的，将具有广泛的适用性。预计我们将在这里得出的结论将对跨越许多行业的大量问题有价值。

Satellites provide essential and extremely reliable services related to communication, broadcasting, and earth observation. The increasing presence of debris orbiting the earth, the result of the ever expanding space activities and explorations, is threatening the security of satellites and the reliability of the services they provide. A tiny debris colliding with a satellite is enough to damage it and put it out of service. As a result, there is a growing need for improved detection of the debris moving close to satellite orbits and their exact trajectories, so that collision-avoiding maneuvers can be performed in time.This project is a feasibility study in to the use of quantum imaging to improve the identification of space debris with the objective of evaluating whether a service offering improved accuracy can be provided on a commercially viable basis to satellite operators. It will be performed by a consortium composed of the satellite operator Avanti and the quantum imaging group at the University of Birmingham.Starting from a precise technical definition of the problem provided by Avanti, the University of Birmingham will critically assess recent proposals to improve the detection of remote objects with light in quantum LIDAR systems, and build solutions based on these. These proposals will rely on the quantum nature of light, e.g. to provide capabilities such as the detecting small optical signals buried in the ambient light, the amplification of small signal without adding noise for easier detection, and the conversion between light and microwaves to combine the advantages of LIDAR and RADAR. The practicality and commercial viability of the final solutions in the context of the satellite industry will be evaluated by Avanti.The project focuses on the specific problem of space debris detection but the methods that we will consider are generic and will have broad applicability. It is expected that the conclusions that we will reach here will be of value for a large class of problems spanning many industries.