Magnus Phase II: Space-Fence-Level Uncued Detectability at 1/1000th the Cost

The increasing threat of direct-ascent and co-orbital ASAT weapons, coupled with recent foreign sub-satellite deployments, necessitates uncued and persistent space surveillance. While the US Space Fence is a highly-capable system aimed at addressing these problems, its extremely high cost makes it impossible to proliferate to the extent that is needed to maintain custody of the growing number of threats to our nation’s satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). While much lower-cost alternatives to persistent LEO space object tracking exist, they either require precise pointing information (i.e., a cue to steer the sensor) or they utilize traditional electro-optical technology that is limited to nighttime operation, or both.  To fill this critical capability gap, Slingshot Aerospace aims to create an uncued day/night optical fence, named “Magnus,” that is capable of tracking all transiting objects larger than a microsatellite during the day and larger than a golf ball at night. Compared to traditional optical systems, Magnus will generate 5x the viewing opportunities and capture objects in orbits (and sub-orbits) not otherwise detectable. Moreover, Magnus will have a cost point that is orders of magnitude lower than space surveillance radars, and it will produce accurate orbital state estimates to cue follow-up sensor tasking by third-party commercial and government space surveillance systems.