Atsushi Nakajima (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hirohisa Kurosaki (JAXA), Taisei Fukaya
(Tokyo Metropolitan University)
Keywords: Orbital Debris
Abstract:
For the development of the optical observation technologies for space debris, Institute of Aerospace Technology(IAT) of JAXA has prepared two small optical observation facilities of LEO and GEO debris detections. LEO debris tracking facility is located at HQ of JAXA, Tokyo, with a 35cm telescope onboard the 3-axis tracking mount system, GEO debris observation facility is located at Nyukasa-yama mountain in Nagano Prefecture. A 35cm Newtonian optical telescope with 2K2K CCD camera and a 25cm BRC optical telescope with 4K4K CCD camera are supported on each equatorial mount system. The latter facility is under construction and will be operated within this autumn. The altitude of this site is 1,860m and the optical environment will be adequate for detecting faint objects. One of the most important study item in our R&D is to develop an automatic small size GEO debris detection software. In usual case, a long exposure time is necessary to detect a faint object by accumulating weak light energy during the time. On the contrary, short exposure observation is necessary for GEO debris detection to avoid the influence of the fixed star streaks image. We have proposed a stacking method for detecting a noise-level faint GEO debris by accumulating the signals of a number of images, for example, a hundred frames. By applying the stacking method for asteroid survey observation, 21st magnitude asteroid can be detected by using this small telescope. Another research item is to develop a high-speed read/write CCD camera. High efficiency back illuminated 1K1K and 2K2K CCD cameras were developed and 4K4K CCD camera is under testing. The read/write time of the 4K4K CCD camera is about 10 seconds, which is cooled by a sterling engine refrigerator. This paper introduces the JAXAs facilities for LEO and GEO space debris observation and describes some developing technologies and evaluated results.
Date of Conference: September 10-14, 2006
Track: Orbital Debris