Joseph Gerber, Centauri Corporation; Yann Picard, Safran Data Systems; Melrose Brown, UNSW Canberra Space; Jason Held, Saber Astronautics; Frederic Pelletier, NorthStar Earth & Space; Tim Fuller, Seradata Limited
Keywords: SACT, Space Traffic Management, STM, Space Situational Awareness, SSA, International Collaboration, Surveillance Networks, Commercial
Abstract:
A new international exercise series, the Commercial Sprint Advanced Concept Training (SACT), was established in April 2019 to advance joint space operations. The Commercial SACT evolved from early collaborations with the National Space Defense Center (NSDC), Department of Commerce (DoC) and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to explore the potential of commercial companies augmenting traditional Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and civil Space Traffic Management (STM). The founding members recognized substantive Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capabilities existed in pockets of commercial services and believed that providing an environment to coalesce and experiment with these in real-world events may accelerate the state-of-the-art. Since then, the SACT commercial experiments have quickly grown to include multiple international partners, notably Australia, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Conducted three times a year, the week-long space operations event series includes a broad mix of commercial, government, and academic participants coalescing to execute two 24-hour operations cycles. Each cycle is crafted to measure and mature an array of space operations ‘desired learning objectives’ (DLOs) using real-world end-to-end operational systems. The DLOs are designed by representative sponsoring agencies, including NSDC and DoC, to understand where the true commercial capacity in space surveillance stands with respect to operational SSA and STM needs. Example DLO categories include: Search and Recovery (SAR), Closely Spaced Object (CSO) discrimination, satellite characterization, high-cadence surveillance, conjunction assessment, Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) analysis, and many others. As an unclassified event, the Commercial SACT draws from across the international spectrum, including some of the latest commercial space operations technologies (e.g., the LeoLabs Kiwi Space Radar [KSR] in New Zealand’s South Island and the deep space Algonquin Radio Observatory in Ontario Canada operated by Thoth technology). During the last SACT (April 2020), the exercise series had representation from multiple foreign partners across more than 40 commercial companies, seven universities, and 25 government agencies. Operational control seamlessly transitioned from Australia (University of New South Wales/Saber Astronautics), to France (Safran Data Systems), to the United States (Catalyst Campus in Colorado) in rotating 8-hour shifts. The event exercises full spectrum SSA processing including: multi-phenomenology surveillance; advanced orbit determination; command and control (C2); dynamic tasking; image processing; Public Satellite Research Analysis (PSRA); artificial intelligence (AI) supported pattern of life (PoL) analysis; anomaly detection; and others. The SACT benefit all stakeholders, especially the surveillance and system developers. The SACT offers a rare opportunity for commercial participants to learn from real-world situation and the understand needs of its customers through all space surveillance regimes including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), and Cislunar. For example, as the Canadian start-up NorthStar develops its constellation of space-based optical sensors, the company is learning from the SACT and able to tailor product development to better meet market needs. One of the elements that make the SACT so challenging is the heavy emphasis on performing real-world operations in real-time. This paper conveys how the SACT exercise series is serving as an ‘innovation and collaboration testbed’ for advancing all aspects of space operations and how it has become a foundational element of advancing civil-space traffic management through a renaissance (or revival and renewed interest in) of international collaboration.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2020
Track: SSA/SDA