HYBRID – General Meeting – July 2022

TITLE:  Space Domain Awareness for Sustainable Orbital Space 

PRESENTATION:  The orbital space around the Earth is congested, contested and competitive. Over the last decade, the number of operational satellites has increased >250% and the number of orbital debris has doubled. With the impending launch of commercial mega constellations, the sustainable use of orbital space is questioned. As humans expand their footprint beyond near-Earth environment into cislunar space (between Earth and the moon), there is a critical need to detect, track, and characterize space objects not only for space traffic management but to avoid strategic surprises. Dr. Reddy’s talk will be a primer on space domain awareness, including a synopsis of the current situation, highlighting key challenges ahead and the application of planetary science techniques to resolve some of them.

BIO:  Dr. Vishnu Reddy is a planetary scientist and an infrared spectroscopist researching connections between asteroids and meteorites to understand Solar System formation and evolution. His research also focuses on space objects in cislunar space for the US Air Force. He received his doctorate from the University of North Dakota (UND) in Earth System Science and Policy (2009) and was a post-doctoral researcher at Observatório Nacional, Brazil (2010). While a Research Assistant Professor at UND (2010-2013) he worked with the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany on NASA’s Dawn mission to asteroid (4) Vesta. He subsequently worked at the Planetary Science Institute (2013-2016) before moving to the University of Arizona (2016-present) where he is an Associate Professor in the Lunar and Planetary Lab. He served as the investigation team lead (2015-2020) on NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor Mission to discover 90% of near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 140 meters. Currently, as Director of UA’s Biosphere 2 Space Domain Awareness Observatory Complex, he oversees all ground-based optical/infrared and passive radio frequency space surveillance assets. Asteroid 1981 EQ28 has been named (8068) vishnureddy by the International Astronomical Union in recognition of his contribution to planetary science.