Telescope will help country respond to future challenges, says Air Force chief
Portugal’s most advanced optical telescope has begun operating at Air Base 11 (BA11), in Beja, to monitor objects in space, whose information is useful for national defence and supporting satellite manoeuvres.
“We have to have eyes to be able to fulfill the mission“, Air Force Chief of Staff, General Cartaxo Alves told reporters today on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new telescope at BA11 in Beja.
Involving a total investment of €25 million – with funding from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) – the equipment was the result of a partnership between the Portuguese Air Force (FAP) and Portuguese aerospace company Neuraspace.
The optical telescope is located within the perimeter of Beja air base, next to the runway. It recently went into full operation, after having completed a testing period that lasted around two months.
General Cartaxo Alves stressed that the installation of this telescope represents “one of the first major steps” towards the realisation of FAP’s new strategy focused on space.
“We are much more capable of responding to the future challenges facing our country” now, he said.
Colonel Pedro Costa, director of FAP’s Space Operations Center, explained that the telescope “will track and monitor objects in space, whether operational satellites or space junk.
“We’re filming, making small films, during the night, which is the period in which the sensor operates, of objects that reflect light and, with this information, based on a catalogue, it allows us to identify that object”, he said.
According to the official, the information obtained has applications in the areas of national security and defence and also in commercial terms, under the strategic partnership with the company Neuraspace.
For security and defence, “we need to know, for example, when we bring out our F-16 (fighter plane), what’s above it; what’s capturing us, so that we can also keep the whole operation discreet and derive operational value.
“This sensor will also make it possible to support re-entries from space and, in this sense, it will also guarantee the safety of people and goods from objects coming from outer space,” said the colonel.
As for Neuraspace, the information provided by the telescope will help the company “support operators when it comes to manoeuvering satellites in space”.
“There are so many objects (in space) that satellites need to be moved to avoid collisions,” said Col. Costa.
Pointing to this optical telescope as one of the most advanced in the world, the director of the FAP’s Space Operations Center said that it was designed to capture images at distances “between 300 and 8,000 kilometers”.
“But, in fact, the work that has been done in Portugal to prepare and bring together all the skills allows us to make observations at distances of almost 38,000 kilometers just yesterday (Monday), with a spectacular night in Beja,” he said.
The construction of the equipment and the development of its software, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms, relied on the collaboration of national industry and higher education institutions, as well as FAP.
Two years after the company came into being, Neuraspace is already monitoring more than 300 satellites.
Source: LUSA
