Anthony D. Gleckler ( GEOST, Inc.), Michael C. Butterfield (GEOST, Inc.)
Keywords: SSA, DARPA
Abstract:
Viral SSA takes advantage of the amateur astronomy community to provide an extremely low-cost and geographically-diverse network of optical SSA sites. In the spirit of programs such as DARPAs Grand Challenge and the National Weather Services program of providing amateur meteorologists with weather stations linked to a central professional meteorological facility, we form a cooperative bond with a willing community of technically-minded individuals. We term this program viral because we will qualify an initial set of astronomers for SSA operation and then use word of mouth in the astronomy community, as well as an outreach program, to pull in new observers. The use of modern remote controlled telescopes allows the incorporation of certified amateur, university, and commercial telescope systems. The availability of the local Viral SSA member for troubleshooting eliminates most significant costs of operating a large network. In this talk, we discuss the key concepts of Viral SSA and the route to a network of 100+ sites in a three year or less timeframe.
Date of Conference: September 11-14, 2012
Track: Data and Services