Richard Stottler, Stottler Henke Associates, Inc.
Keywords: Space Surveillance Network (SSN), Scheduling, Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Artificial Intelligence, Sensor Schedule Optimization, Resource Allocation, Sensor Management, Commercial SSA sensors
Abstract:
There are close to 20,000 cataloged manmade objects in space, the large majority of which are not active, functioning satellites. These are tracked by phased array and mechanical radars and ground and space-based optical telescopes, collectively known as the Space Surveillance Network (SSN). Meanwhile there are many hundreds of commercially owned SSA sensors scattered across over 100 site that produce high quality data that should be taken advantage of by government and industry decision-makers to improve their space situational awareness (SSA). This paper discusses scheduling issues and algorithms applied to optimized SSA sensor scheduling, including commercial SSA sensors and presents the surprisingly significant SSA sensing capacity represented by commercial SSA sensors. Included are specific, quantitative results from different scheduling experiments, showing what kind of performance is both possible and should be expected.
Date of Conference: September 17-20, 2019
Track: Space Situational Awareness