GMV contributes to development of Portugal’s space surveillance system

GMV has signed two contracts with Portugal’s Ministry of Defense, focused on research and development for Portugal’s space surveillance and tracking (SST) system, which is part of the European Union’s SST system (EU SST). This work will address an area of increasing concern, which is the alarming rate of increase seen in the amount of space debris orbiting the earth, caused by the growing number of launches taking place in recent years. The European Space Agency (ESA) now estimates that there are almost 10,000 metric tons of material orbiting our planet, including more than 1 million objects larger than 1 cm in size. This presents a real risk for satellites currently in operation, as well as for those developed as part of space projects in the future.

GMV will be responsible for studying the adaptations and improvements being developed for the EU SST database and inventory, and for studying the impact that those changes could have on Portugal’s SST system. In addition, and also in the context of the EU SST program, GMV will be studying implementation of new services and the future space environment. All of this will contribute to analysis of a potential expansion of “basic” services for EU SST (collision, reentry, and fragmentation) and assessment of other new services. It represents a clear opportunity to propose and participate in these new services, and to expand Portugal’s role within the EU SST program.

More than 80 engineers from GMV are now working on SST activities in seven European countries, making this a primary area of operations for the company and the largest SST team in Europe.

GMV is a worldwide leader in the study, monitoring, and prevention of space debris, as a way to protect the safety and sustainability of space operations in the future. Much of GMV’s work on this subject is dedicated to the ESA (in Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Romania, Poland, and Portugal), to the EU SST system (in Spain, France, Germany, Romania, Poland, and Portugal), to the commercial sector (providing collision avoidance services to more than 10 operators and more than 80 satellites through its Focusoc operations center), and to the field of military space.