A Europe-wide research project that will investigate how to explore — and exploit — asteroids (and make the use of space sustainable) has received funding worth 4 million euros from the European Union.

The Stardust Reloaded project is led by Massimiliano Vasile at the University of Strathclyde (www.strath.ac.uk).

The original Stardust project, which began in 2013, pioneered new techniques for asteroid and space debris monitoring, removal and deflection, exploiting for the first time the synergies between the community studying asteroids in and around the solar system and the one studying space debris locally around the Earth.

Stardust Reloaded will take it further, to understand the evolution of the space environment around Earth and how the ever-increasing traffic in space can be safely managed to prevent collisions and allow a sustainable use of space.

The four-year project will also increase our knowledge of the shape, gravity, composition and dynamics of asteroids and comets, and how mineral resources on these celestial minor bodies could be exploited to enhance our exploration of the solar system.

Professor Vasile said: “There are so many people launching satellites now — particularly smaller and smaller ones — that the risk of collision, and with it the risk of setting off a cascade, is greatly increasing. With this project, we aim to understand how the growth in satellites orbiting Earth affects the evolution of the space environment and how we can best manage that.

“Asteroids and space debris represent a significant hazard for space and terrestrial assets, but also an opportunity.

“In the case of asteroids, we want to explore new ways of travelling to them, exploring them and characterising them with a view to understanding how we might exploit them with technologies that are still under development.”