Avoiding Space Junk

Classic problem, especially with all those new mini satellites in orbit.   And ultimately also include other approaching objects? 

IBM to Open-Source Space Junk Collision Avoidance

ZDNet  By Greg Nichols

IBM and researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are collaborating on an open source project to determine and predict the orbit of anthropogenic space objects (ASOs)—man-made space debris—in order to avoid collisions. Current methods for orbit prediction rely on physics-based models using location data on ASOs from terrestrial-based sensors, which tends to be imperfect. The Space Situational Awareness project uses machine learning (ML)-generated models that learn when physical models incorrectly predict an ASO's future location. The project employs data from the U.S. Strategic Command through the space-track.org website, with IBM hardware running physical models to anticipate the orbits of all ASOs in low earth orbit and train ML models on the physics model error.