Darren McKnight, LeoLabs; Shriharsh Tendulkar, LeoLabs; Erin Dale, LeoLabs; Ivan Sheu, LeoLabs; Owen Marshall, LeoLabs; Alejandro Londono, LeoLabs; Ashton Reimer, LeoLabs; Jim Shell, Novarum Tech, LLC; Victor Gardner, Proxima Aerospace; Kevin Kloster, Albedo; Ryan Shepperd, Iridium
https://doi.org/10.64861/IQSI6637
Keywords: object characterization. MASINT, target signatures
Abstract:
The characterization of space objects is critical to space safety, space sustainability, and space security domains. The size, density, and behavior of a space system hint at its mission, operational status, and potential to pose a risk to others. In the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) vernacular, this paper documents the accuracy and variance for three complementary target signatures (as part of the Space MASINT – Measurements and Signatures Intelligence – mission). The three utilities examined are (1) radar cross section, RCS (i.e., combined proxy for physical size, shape, and construction); (2) area-to-mass ratio, AMR (i.e., inverse of effective space object density); and (3) Doppler residuals (i.e., attitude stability of the space object). A key differentiator for these target signature utilities is the persistence of measurements supported by 12 terrestrial radars distributed worldwide providing the median revisit rate of 10 measurements per day for an intact object in low Earth orbit (LEO). This 24/7 infrastructure creates a steady flow of radar-derived data for statistically significant observations and allows for rapid alerts on changes to AMR and Doppler residuals; RCS is a slow indicator with inherent variance so is typically considered a baseline parameter. This paper provides high-level technical descriptions of these three SDA utilities followed by detailed analysis of their performance against a suite of benchmark experiments including on-orbit simple, passive space objects and specific operational events (e.g., lens cover release, solar sail deployments, etc.). Similar analysis using optical observational data is added for completeness and perspective.
Date of Conference: September 15-18, 2026
Track: Satellite Characterization