UK Space Agency’s resident space debris expert to appear on Blue Peter
16 Jan 2012
Professor Richard Crowther, Chief Engineer at the UK Space Agency, will be talking about the problem of space debris in an upcoming episode of Blue Peter.
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Blue Peter filming.
Credit: UK Space Agency (Matt Goodman).
The interview, filmed last Friday at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Chilbolton Observatory, will be featured in an episode being aired at 17:45 this Thursday (19th Jan) on CBBC.
Professor Crowther’s primary research interests are man-made orbital debris, planetary protection, and near Earth objects (asteroids and comets that pass close to the Earth). He is currently Head of the UK delegations to 
the Inter-Agency Debris Committee and the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), in the past acting as Chair of the UN Working Group on Near Earth Objects within COPUOS. He also leads the UK delegation to the European Space Agency's International Relations Committee, and ESA’s Space Situational Awareness Programme Board. He is also heavily involved in the regulation of space activities derived from UK obligations under the Outer Space Treaties.
The Chilbolton Observatory, the backdrop for Blue Peter’s Space Debris segment, is one of the world's most advanced meteorological radar experimental facilities. The Chilbolton Advanced Meteorological Radar (CAMRa) comprises a high-powered transmitter and sensitive receiver installed on a 25 m diameter fully-steerable dish antenna. The radar is able to track and characterise satellites in low earth orbit. Currently, objects with a radar cross-section of one square metre are detectable at ranges of 1000 km. In future, it is planned to modify the radar so as to characterise targets in more detail by exploiting their polarimetric and Doppler signatures.
