Mühlviertel telescope maker builds global asteroid-tracking network

A telescope maker from the Mühlviertel is developing an international network to track asteroids and space debris, ORF reports. The planned stations will observe objects near Earth and calculate their orbits.

The EGON AT 1 telescope in Sandl, in the Freistadt district, already systematically observes the night sky. Egon Döberl, who is based in Grünbach near Freistadt, is developing the EGON observation system to track asteroids, space debris and decommissioned satellites.

The telescopes will measure objects and use artificial intelligence to process the data before sending it to central organisations for further analysis, said Daniel Wolfmayr, the project’s technical director. The measurements are intended to improve calculations of the objects’ orbits.

Some of the telescopes built in the Mühlviertel are already operating in Namibia. Döberl expects to add one or two stations each year. The plan is for six to eight locations with a total of 30 to 35 telescopes. Completing the network is expected to take another three to four years.

The data will be sent to the Minor Planet Center in the United States, which collects observations from around the world and updates the orbits of celestial objects. Wolfmayr described the network as similar to one large telescope operating worldwide.

About 40,000 asteroids that come at least near Earth are known, and around 2,000 are considered potentially hazardous. The European Space Agency and NASA monitor near-Earth space, but Döberl says more observation stations are needed. He said medium-sized telescopes had been lacking in a field that has relied mainly on a handful of larger telescopes, particularly in the United States.

In early April, scientists in Chile discovered 11,000 previously unknown asteroids in the solar system, including 33 near-Earth objects up to 500 metres in diameter. Döberl said further observations would help researchers identify such objects and better determine their orbits.