Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, Jack Dunham, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
Follow us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast
Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Manisha Mahesh Kumar: Route Optimisation for Space Debris Removal
In this episode of the Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium we are joined by Aeronautics and Astronautics student Manisha Mahesh Kumar to discuss her dissertation 'Route Optimisation for Space Debris Removal'.
Manisha discusses her unique approach for space debris removal and remediation with particular focus of SDG9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure and SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. She explains the current state of the space environment and major events that contributed to space debris accumulation. She elaborates on how a satellite moves through space and how the different manoeuvres it makes contribute to the algorithm design. Manisha details how the algorithm can be tailored by the user to suit the mission profile. We also talk about the comparison of this algorithm to existing heuristics with regards to the computational power used and the optimality of the generated route. Finally, we explore her journey throughout completion of this project. To help listeners grasp the complexity of this issue, she suggests visiting AstriaGraph, a platform for visualizing all bodies, including debris, orbiting the Earth in real-time.
AstriaGraph: http://astria.tacc.utexas.edu/AstriaGraph/
The Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium is part of the 2024 Student Takeover Session where we celebrate the fantastic sustainability research work of our Undergraduate students.
Episode Guest: Manisha Mahesh Kumar
Episode Host: Prof Simon Kemp
Episode Editor: Libby Kale
Engage with us on Instagram and X: @meliorapodcast
