Brad Wallace (Defence Research and Development Canada), Robert (Lauchie) Scott (Defence Research and Development Canada), Aaron Spaans (Defence Research and Development Canada)
Keywords: Telescopes, Instrumentation
Abstract:
DRDC Ottawa has recently developed a small optical sensor to serve as an R&D tool for Surveillance of Space (SofS); the sensor is referred to as the DRDC Ottawa Space Surveillance Observatory (SSO). This paper will describe the SSO, its philosophy and architecture, the automated data reduction software system, and the initial testing performance. In addition, this paper will describe how the SSO is supporting the Canadian Surveillance of Space Project’s Concept Demonstrator (CD), the NEOSSat space-based SofS microsatellite, and DRDC’s future R&D directions.
The SSO is regularly observing in star stare mode (SSM), and is automatically producing metric and photometric data for deep-space RSOs; track-rate mode (TRM) has also been implemented. Observations of GPS satellites demonstrate that the system can regularly produce metric data with an accuracy of better than 3.5 arcseconds in SSM, and ~1 arcsecond in TRM. The sensor, located at a decidedly non-optimal site, is sensitive to objects having intrinsic magnitudes down to about 13 in SSM, and below 14 in TRM.
Date of Conference: September 12-15, 2007
Track: Telescopes and Instrumentation