ReDSHIFT - a Shift toward Better Space Debris Mitigation

On 16-17th of January 2018, the annual meeting of the research project ReDSHIFT was held in Puertollano, Spain. Researchers from 12 organisations and 6 European countries participated, presented the results of their research and coordinated the work for 2018, which is the last year of the three-year term of the project. What the word ReDSHIFT brings to mind at first is the redshift phenomenon where light or other electromagnetic radiation shifted toward longer wavelength or the red part of the spectrum when a given source of radiation moves away from an observer. It led to one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century when astronomers found that the light from most galaxies is redshifted and that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it is receding. Since then, the cosmological redshift has been a fundamental instrument for astronomers to understand the expansion and the origin of the universe. Though paying homage to this physical phenomenon, the title of the project ReDSHIFT also has different meanings. It is an acronym for 'Revolutionary Design of Spacecraft through Holistic Integration of Future Technologies' and a research project in the field of science and engineering, funded by the European Commission in the framework of Horizon 2020. 1 It is not about the study of galaxy formation or evolution but about the question of man-made objects in the orbit around the Earth. Just as a galaxy is obscured by gas and dust, so is the Earth by space debris.