Advanced, Integrated Multi-Sensor System for Space Situation Awareness (AIMS for SSA)

This is a Phase I SBIR proposal to develop an advanced, integrated multi-sensor system for application in space situation awareness. The proposed system integrates laser tracking technology with advanced/emerging visible imaging and infrared search and track and radar technologies to produce an integrated multi-sensor system for space object detection, tracking, characterization, discrimination and event detection. Radio frequency radar can provide the initial state vector and cueing information, which is further enhanced with other sensor information as it becomes available. Because this system will use active imaging technology, it can operate in both day and night and for "dark pass" tracking of satellites through the Earth's shadow. Additionally, active illumination provides a means for optical signal gating, which can greatly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in an acquired image. The system will also operate with several different illumination wavelengths simultaneously to acquire high-quality multi-spectral images of space objects, including data that can be strongly diagnostic of the composition of target objects and aiding in identifying them. The resulting ability to improve the diagnostic quality of such images by exploiting the entire data set will greatly enhance the capabilities of present imaging systems.