Europeans Want Space Debris Trackers of Their Own

"[The new surveillance system] can observe a large number of objects simultaneously, detecting their position to a high degree of accuracy and sensitivity," said Andreas Brenner, a department head at the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques in Wachtberg, Germany.

The radar technology must also be able to track debris particles just a few centimeters in diameter.

Threats from space debris have only grown in recent years. A satellite collision between U.S. and Russian counterparts in Feb. 2009 added to the cloud of space junk. The International Space Station already has to dodge such debris four to five times each year.

Fraunhofer researchers plan to focus on designing the receiver array for the radar, while a Spanish company called Indra Espacio builds the transmitter. Indria Espacio holds the demonstrator radar contract from the European Space Agency (ESA) worth $2 million (1.4 million euros).

European space missions currently rely upon the U.S. Space Surveillance Network to track the smaller pieces of debris in their path. ESA is setting the stage for the European version of such a system to take shape between 2012 and 2019.

Just how the European system would fit with U.S. tracking capabilities remains unknown, but keeping electronic eyes on space is necessary if humanity hopes to harness