Peter Zimmer, J.T. McGraw and Associates, LLC, John T. McGraw, University of New Mexico/JTMA, Mark R. Ackermann, JTMA
Keywords: optical, telescope, LEO, SSA, surveillance, blind, uncued
Abstract:
J.T. McGraw and Associates, LLC operates two proof-of-concept wide-field imaging systems to test novel techniques for uncued surveillance of LEO/MEO/GEO and, in collaboration with the University of New Mexico (UNM), uses a third small telescope for rapidly queued same-orbit follow-up observations. Using our GPU-accelerated detection scheme, the proof-of-concept systems operating at sites near and within Albuquerque, NM, have detected objects fainter than V=13 at greater than 6 sigma significance. This detection approximately corresponds to a 16 cm object with albedo of 0.12 at 1000 km altitude. Dozens of objects are measured during each operational twilight period, many of which have no corresponding catalog object.
The two proof-of-concept systems, separated by ~30km, work together by taking simultaneous images of the same orbital volume to constrain the orbits of detected objects using parallax measurements. These detections are followed-up by imaging photometric observations taken at UNM to confirm and further constrain the initial orbit determination and independently assess the objects and verify the quality of the derived orbits. This work continues to demonstrate that scalable optical systems designed for real-time detection of fast moving objects, which can be then handed off to other instruments capable of tracking and characterizing them, can provide valuable real-time surveillance data at LEO and beyond, which substantively informs the SSA process.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2015
Track: Poster