Dr James Blake was invited to speak on behalf of the Department's Centre for Space Domain Awareness at the 19th Space Situational Awareness Conference in London.

The conference brings together experts from industry and academia to discuss the future landscape for space surveillance and traffic management in light of emerging threats in space and across the globe.

James presented his recent work on surveying for debris in high-altitude orbits and simulating sensor network architectures for cost-effective space surveillance, before taking part in panel discussions on enabling the continued use of space through sustainability efforts.

James says: “This was a great opportunity to get a feel for how plans for the new National Space Operations Centre are shaping up. It’s historically been difficult for academia to engage with end users in government and industry, so it’s important that academic voices feed into these discussions to make that process easier in the future.”