Major Thomas Jost (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Michael Dearborn (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Francis Chun (U.S. Air Force Academy), Mr. John Clark (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Joseph Liu (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Matthew McHarg (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Devin Della-Rose (U.S. Air Force Academy), Dr. Roger Tippets (U.S. Air Force Academy)
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Abstract:
As documented in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2010, space situational awareness (SSA) is a high priority for the DoD and intelligence community. A fundamental understanding of the technical issues involved with SSA requires knowledge in many different scientific areas. The mission of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is to educate, train, and inspire men and women to become officers of character motivated to lead the United States Air Force in service to our Nation. The physics department is implementing the USAFA mission and the need for technically competent officers in SSA through a comprehensive SSA Initiative. As part of the Initiative, we are developing a course to provide junior or senior cadets with the scientific background necessary to understand the challenges associated with SSA missions and systems. This presentation introduces the planned course objectives and includes a discussion of topics to be covered. Examples of topics include, optically resolved imaging, radiometry and photometry, radar detection and tracking, orbital prediction, debris and collision avoidance, detection of proximity operations and modeling and simulation tools. Cadets will have hands-on opportunities to collect metrics of a designated object using Academy assets such as the 41 cm telescope. Cadets will convert telescope gimbal angles into an orbital data. Cadets will synthesize what they learned in the course by completing the semester with a final project where the collected data is merged with a notional scenario to present a mock decision briefing. This class will be open to cadets of any academic major, since the intent is to prepare officers with basic technical competence in SSA applications. This is critical since graduates of the Academy become commissioned officers in the military and serve in a large variety of leadership positions – from the researcher to the warfighter. Since we are currently developing the course, the SSA community will be invited to send online feedback to USAFA physics department faculty and to participate by providing materials that may be integrated into course.
Date of Conference: September 1-4. 2009
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