Mark Graham, Defence Science and Technology Group, Department of Defence
Keywords: space situational awareness, modelling, simulation
Abstract:
Due to increasing dependence on space-based capabilities, in recent years Australia has committed to making a greater contribution to generating space situational awareness (SSA). A natural first step has been to acknowledge Australias privileged geolocation and accept US invitations to host and jointly operate elements of the Space Surveillance Network (SSN), in particular a C-Band tracking radar to help maintain the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) region of the space object catalogue, and the Space Surveillance Telescope to maintain watch over the relatively crowded Geosynchronous sector above the Indian Ocean. The Australian government has also encouraged and supported increased investment by commercial and academic interests in SSA Research and Development capabilities.
Nevertheless, as Australia operates virtually no space systems itself, the Australian government has limited understanding of SSA. This can impact the ability to make informed decisions about participation in systems such as the SSN or further investments in Australian capability. Therefore Defence in Australia has sponsored ongoing work by the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group to build up necessary understanding to support such decisions. This paper describes some of the operational analyses carried out to date in this program.
The program has centred on high-level modelling and simulation of the potential contribution sensors in Australia might make to maintain the unclassified LEO catalogue. This has involved calculating the ability of generic sensors to observe LEO objects, as a function of the sensors locations and key coverage parameters such as range, elevation limits and operating hours which in turn depend on whether the sensors are active or passive. It has also required identification, computation and refinement of appropriate performance metrics to summarise the output of the simulations. This paper will outline work done, the results obtained and the conclusions drawn to date. In particular it notes findings so far and outstanding issues in carrying out perhaps the most difficult part of this work: assessing the difference new Australian systems might make to the overall performance of an enlarged SSN.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2015
Track: Space Situational Awareness