Below is a summary of a story on Pratt School of Engineering .
Outer space is getting too full of satellites, debris and other objects. Duke engineer David Smith is working on a better way to keep track of it all.
Smith, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected as a 2026 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) fellow . The fellowship comes with funding to tackle his big idea: a new way to keep track of satellites, vehicles and space debris by moving the monitoring operation from earth into space.
Existing ground-based radar systems are limited. They can track objects in low Earth orbit, but the distances involved in monitoring activity beyond that is difficult. But getting a traditional antenna far enough into space to do the job is difficult.
Smith's idea centers on metamaterials, essentially engineering materials that receive unusual properties through their structure rather than just their chemistry. Smith wants to use metamaterials as space sensors. Instead of launching a complete, massive antenna, Smith hopes to launch the necessary materials into space, where robots would build a radar system from the modular components. The system would combine robotically assembled, mechanically stable structures with reconfigurable electromagnetic metamaterials. This would allow far more powerful radar than a conventional antenna could operate.
The NASA program funding Smith's research supports new and better aerospace concepts intended to improve future space missions. It offers multiple phases of funding to explore ideas that could change what is possible in space exploration. The first phase provides up to $225,000 for nine months of study, with successful concepts eligible for subsequent funding.
