Bryan Law (Boeing LTS), Dennis Liang (Boeing LTS), Tom Kelecy (Boeing LTS), Andrew Alday (Boeing LTS), Jake Barros (Boeing LTS), Paul Sydney (Boeing LTS), and John Africano (Boeing LTS)
Keywords: Satellite Metrics
Abstract:
As the population of space objects continues to grow, so does the interest in the development of Wide Field Of View (WFOV) optical sensors. Wide field of view capability greatly reduces the maximum time to search for and detect objects in coverage while greatly increasing our ability to survey space, and thus can provide a valuable resource to the space surveillance mission. Timely capture and hand-off of lost or newly discovered objects between sensors is a key capability necessary for successful orbit characterization. The Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing (AMOS) site has refurbished a Baker-Nunn telescope, called Phoenix, with field-flattening optics, a modern CCD camera, and control software similar to what is used in Raven telescopes. The result is a 6.8 degree by 6.8 degree field of view optical sensor. In addition to Phoenix, AMOS has developed a Raven-class telescope with an approximate 0.5 degree by 0.5 degree field of view and has the capability of producing sub-arcsecond metrics. This paper presents hardware and software upgrades that were made to the Phoenix telescope to support a near real-time state vector hand-off between sensors. The system performance requirements and calibration results are presented. The capture and hand-off performance results will be used to outline requirements for an operational implementation.
Date of Conference: September 10-14, 2006
Track: Satellite Metrics