Improving Space Surveillance with Space-Based Visible Sensor

The Midcourse Space Experiment satellite was launched in 1996. A principal sensor on board the satellite is the Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor, a visible-band electro-optical camera designed at Lincoln Laboratory. The program has just completed three years of Contributing Sensor operations under the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program. The SBV has transitioned to an operational sensor under Space Command sponsorship. This paper describes recent modifications, made under the ACTD program, to both spacecraft and ground systems that have increased the productivity of the sensor from 200 deep space tracks/day to over 350 tracks/day. The onboard SBV software has been modified to utilize the redundant signal processor to process information in parallel. A new mode of operations has also been implemented that exploits the geometry of geosynchronous orbits to provide a very efficient coverage of the geosynchronous belt. Details of these modifications and initial results will be provided. Operational Impact of Space-Based Space Surveillance After completing a successful demonstration of space-based space surveillance, the SBV sensor began contributing sensor operations in April 1998. The SBV Processing and Operations Control Center (SPOCC) receives daily tasking from Space Command. The spacecraft is operated 8 hours per day, 7 days per week performing space surveillance. The description of the operations and data processing was provided in previous papers [2,3]. Sensor characteristics relevant to routine space surveillance are summarized in Table 1. There are two unique properties of the SBV sensor that are being exploited for space surveillance [4,5]. First, the SBV sensor is on an orbiting platform and has access to the entire geosynchronous belt. Second, the wide field of view of the sensor allows for efficient search operations and for multiple resident space objects (RSOs) to be detected simultaneously. Surveillance data is collected in a sidereal track mode, where the stars appear as point sources and the RSOs appear as streaks. Routine surveillance data is then processed through the onboard signal processor to extract the star and streak information as illustrated in Figure 1.