Optical Physics Company — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: ABSTRACT: Detection and precision tracking of objects in space is critical to space situa

Description

ABSTRACT: Detection and precision tracking of objects in space is critical to space situational awareness and response. This task is routinely carried out at night with ground-based electro-optical telescopes around the world. However, this capability needs to be extended to cover all times of day to detect and quantify less predictable spacecraft maneuvers and to enable effective search for new, lost or maneuvering vehicles and worldwide coverage of daytime space launches. An affordable, portable system would offer more flexibility and cost effectiveness. Optical Physics Company (OPC) is proposing a detection technique based on its proven interferometric tracker, resulting in satellite detection capability very close to the fundamental SNR limit. This type of tracker has proven accuracy of 50 nanoradians (3 sigma) leading to a track accuracy better than 1 microradian and 1 nanorad/sec for GEO objects with visual magnitude 15 during the day. A 50 cm aperture is planned which facilitates cost-effective and portable deployment options. Phase I will include a daytime track test of LEO objects using an available NIR tracker built for the Navy. During Phase II OPC will build a prototype of the GEO sensor and test it against GEO satellites at MSSS using the 1.6 m telescope available at that facility. BENEFIT: Space situational awareness (SSA) is an increasing priority in a complex space environment. The sensor developed here can be easily and cost-effectively mass produced for deployment around the globe. This will substantially increase our ability to detect and track new launches or follow maneuvering vehicles on orbit. This same technology can be easily scaled to detection and track of LEO objects during the day and terminator conditions as well as nighttime GEO detection and track down to visual magnitude 20 under full moon conditions. SSA from space represents an additional application without any sky background just star clutter. Compact and high performance trackers in space can use the same technology base to provide detailed mapping of debris fields. Since all launches and nations will benefit from mapping the debris field, this sensor network might reasonably become an international project. OPC has already demonstrated success with transitioning technologies developed under SBIR funding to ongoing research and acquisition programs. In particular, OPC has become a preferred supplier of deformable mirrors for high energy lasers. In case of the interferometric tracker, there are multiple avenues for technology transition. Besides tracking dim objects of interest, the interferometric tracker can also be deployed in high precision star trackers for spacecraft guidance navigation and control (GN & C) and for GPS-independent stellar inertial navigation on ground and airborne platforms.