Achieving SSA Through Representation of Meta-information and Intelligent Search Technology (ASTROMIST)

A critical element of our global military dominance is the overwhelming capabilities afforded by the US military space segment. Successful space operations are dependent upon accurate and actionable space situational awareness (SSA), a concept that goes beyond simple cataloging of the location and orbit of objects in space to include the ability to identify and discriminate natural and man-made phenomena in space. Current tools to support SSA have limited capabilities for data exploration, selection, search, and pattern recognition, and there has been no effort to integrate workflows across various systems. To address the need for an aid to bolster space situational awareness, we propose to design and demonstrate an extensible system for Achieving SSA Through Representation of Meta-information and Intelligent Search Technology (ASTROMIST). Three core components characterize our approach. First, we will perform a Work-Centered Support System (WCSS) analysis on the domain to develop a structured categorization of factors commonly considered in space operations, with a specific focus on space weather. Second, we will design and demonstrate a system to visualize relevant information and meta-information, and provide automated pattern recognition through intelligent agent-based search. Third, we will develop an evaluation methodology to determine the effectiveness of the developed techniques.