Darin Koblick (Millennium Space Systems), Moriba Jah (Air Force Research Laboratory), Brien Flewelling (Air Force Research Laboratory), Alfred Goldsmith (Millennium Space Systems), Michael Klug (Millennium Space Systems), Joe Shanks (Photon Research Associates), Robert Pina (Photon Research Associates), Jason Stauch (Schafer Corporation), Jason Baldwin (Schafer Corporation), James Campbell (CENTRA Technology), Travis Blake (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
Keywords: Ground Optical Signal Processing, Corner Detection, Small Space Based Telescopes, Modeling and Simulation
Abstract:
The main objective of the DARPA program Orbit Outlook (O^2) is to improve the metric tracking and detection performance of the Space Situational Network (SSN) by adding a diverse low-cost network of contributing sensors to the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) mission. In order to accomplish this objective, not only must a sensor be in constant communication with a planning and scheduling system to process tasking requests, there must be an underlying framework to provide useful data products, such as angles only measurements. Existing optical signal processing implementations such as the Optical Processing Architecture at Lincoln (OPAL) are capable of converting mission data collections to angles only observations, but may be difficult for many users to obtain, support, and customize for low-cost missions and demonstration programs. The Ground Optical Signal Processing Architecture (GOSPA) will ingest raw imagery and telemetry data from a space based electro optical sensor and perform a background removal process to remove anomalous pixels, interpolate over bad pixels, and dominant temporal noise. After background removal, the streak end points and target centroids are located using a corner detection algorithm developed by Air Force Research Laboratory. These identified streak locations are then fused with the corresponding spacecraft telemetry data to determine the Right Ascension and Declination measurements with respect to time. To demonstrate the performance of GOSPA, non-rate tracking collections against a satellite in Geosynchronous Orbit are simulated from a visible optical imaging sensor in a polar Low Earth Orbit. Stars, noise and bad pixels are added to the simulated images based on look angles and sensor parameters. These collections are run through the GOSPA framework to provide angles- only measurements to the Air Force Research Laboratory Constrained Admissible Region Multiple Hypothesis Filter (CAR-MHF) in which an Initial Orbit Determination is performed and compared to truth data.
Date of Conference: September 9-12, 2014
Track: Sensor Processing