Patent Grant
9423341
Optical capabilities for space situational awareness (SSA), and in particular for the geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) regime are highly desired as an augmentation of current radars. In a general sense, optical telescopes are better suited than radar systems to GEO observations due to problems of reduction in detection of reflected flux. In addition, bright daylight skies make observing dim objects challenging, because of increased system noise, camera saturation and short exposure time.
Optical telescopes in the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) used to monitor the GEO satellites operate only at night. Depending upon the sensor location, night time observations might be possible for 10 to 14 hours per 24-hour day, leaving a gap in observation capability from 10 to 14 hours per day. Daytime observations are quite important, but currently are handled mostly by a few radar systems. Current radars do not provide full global coverage and thus cannot detect many GEO objects. In addition, radar sites are expensive to operate and maintain. The radars must overcome the fact that they transmit power in a beam that must be reflected and detected upon reflection. A decrease in efficacy is proportional to the beam fading in power over twice the distance between the radar and the satellite. That is referred to as the 1/r4 problem. Optical systems experience a reduction in the detection of flux reflected from the satellite proportional to 1/r2.
At 36,000 km altitude above the Earth, GEO satellites are much farther away than low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, which are often found at altitudes between 300 and 1000 km. Since the GEO satellites are approximately 100 times farther than LEOs, GEOs will be 10,000 times fainter, all else being equal. An 8th magnitude LEO object at 360 km if placed in a GEO*/orbit would become 18th magnitude object.
In addition, the bright daylight skies make observing dim objects challenging because of increased system noise, camera saturation and short exposure times. For a sky brightness increase of 100 to 500 times, which is typical of IR observing bands in the day, noise will increase by approximately the square root, or 10 times to 25 times. This reduces system detection capability by ˜3 to 5 magnitudes. At night, exposure times of minutes are used to see very dim objects, but in the day, maximum exposure times may be less than 1 second before the camera signal is saturated to a maximum level.
GEO satellites are expensive and tend to be quite large, which makes them brighter than smaller LEO objects, thus brighter than 18th magnitude. They typically have large, steerable solar arrays, which have areas in the tens of square meters. The faces enlarged somewhat mitigate the issues of distance and daylight viewing.
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The present invention provides imaging of satellites and other space objects and tracking of satellites from the Earth. The invention provides cameras and telescopes that suppress through the use of cold traps infrared background from telescopes and optics, as seen by the infrared detectors. Interactive background subtraction combined with shifting and adding to remove background noise improves the signal to noise ratio.
The invention addresses the problems unique to satellite imaging [and other faint space objects], including stacking and combinations of frames as stars move through the field.
The system would be valuable to satellite operators and others interested in SSA, who would like relevant space information during the daytime.
This invention explicitly suppresses the background infrared contribution from telescope and camera optics. In addition, the new invention uses a shift and stare technique, combined with interactive background subtraction. In this new technique, the contributions from stars are removed in addition to the contributions from the background. The background subtraction occurs on a per-pixel basis, as well.
The new infrared (IR) capability will allow a system to achieve operations continuously, day and night, provided that clouds of too great of an optical thickness do not intervene. The invention provides an infrared capability in persistent observational surveillance for enhanced space situational awareness. This invention addresses the gaps by extending IR sensor technology to achieve a capability that is over 100× more sensitive than currently-fielded systems, such as the Daylight Acquisition System (DAS).
The geosynchronous orbit (GEO) belt is of strategic importance to the U.S. because of the large number of vital communications and Earth-observation satellites in GEO. At 36,000 km above the Earth's equator, the orbital velocity of satellites in circular orbits matches the speed of the rotation of the Earth. Within the GEO regime, there are geostationary satellites, which maintain their position over a location on the Earth, other satellites with orbits that incline to the equator, as well as other satellites that do not actively maintain their position or are in slightly different orbits, such as disposal orbits, and thus move slowly relative to the Earth's surface. GEO objects are subject to perturbations caused by the gravity of the Sun and the Moon, variations in the distribution of the Earth's mass, solar radiation pressure, and other small effects that cause satellites to drift from stationary positions. Monitoring of the satellites in the GEO belt is necessary to maintain knowledge of their orbits to avoid collisions, to understand whether the satellites are maintained under operator control or, if they are out of control, to help to determine why a satellite that fails might have failed, and to determine what is wrong with satellites that are having control problems, in order to regain proper operations, and potentially to detect attacks upon GEO satellites belonging to the U.S. or our allies. Providing persistent space situational awareness for the GEO belt is a high priority for USSTRATCOM as well as USPACOM. Persistent surveillance requires full 24/7 coverage of the entire belt, including day and night observations.
The technology also addresses the issues posed by the spatial-temporal sky variation, and thus realizes the significant benefits possible through frame co-adding and gives equivalent integration times of many minutes, which is appropriate for GEO objects.
The technology would work well within a ground-based intelligent network of autonomous small (˜0.5 m+) telescopes. The complete network system could include multiple sites with multiple sensors at each site distributed globally. Site specific manning could be as few as 2 man-days per months per site, as an example.
The system provides continues, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, day and night coverage for GEO observations including metrics and characterizations for catalog updates, persistent custody, and change detection. The new system brings new and complementary capabilities to space situational awareness (SSA) and does not duplicate existing or future planned systems. The new system provides information, precision, quality, security, timeliness and sharing of information and reach, persistence, agility and a broad spectrum of operations.
Existing SSA sensors include radar and optical systems. A current optical system used for space object catalog maintenance is the Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS), which has three sites, each with three 1−m telescopes, and one site with a single telescope. Site-specific manning is ˜600 man-days per months per site. Site cost is ˜$25 M. GEODSS operates only at night. GEODSS does not provide daytime coverage, and is unable to provide real-time data on events, such as satellite launches or maneuvers.
The new system differs from GEODSS in the context of space awareness attributes in several ways. The new automated processing improves the timeliness of information of SSA, providing timely data, change detection, maneuver detection and more. This results from the combination of frequent, hourly observations of objects, automated processing, and succinct, automated reporting. Its control center is capable of producing intermediate-level and high-level data products, improving the precision of information. While current sensors act as data collectors, the new system paradigm includes mission processing, orbital determination, conjunction analysis, cross-tagging, and other capabilities included in the baseline and a continuously growing set of products distributed to the SSA and space control communities via the netcentric paradigm.
The new sensors can be integrated with and can be tasked by existing command and control. In addition, all information and data products generated by the new network will be made available to the community of users through a gateway at the system control center, improving the sharing of information.
The technology and a network would improve the reach of operations of ground-based SSA, including unmet geographic coverage. Additionally, the new infrared daylight capability extends the reach of ground-based optical observations into the daytime. New rapidly deployable mobile sensors can extend reach on demand. For example, sensors could be position in areas better able to characterize threats from orbital debris, should the orbital geometry of the debris be difficult to observe with existing assets.
The new system can immediately provide extended persistence of operations not available from GEODSS through a multitude of methods. The geographically distributed sensors provide persistence to weather outages that GEODSS currently cannot. The ability to extend night time operations into twilight extends persistence of visible sensors. The infrared daylight capability provides daytime persistence of operations.
The new network provides agility of operations not available with GEODSS. The new system incorporates intelligent network tasking that is interruptible and rapidly re-taskable. This supplies the flexibility required to ensure support for high-priority, time-sensitive, and urgent requests for information. Data products are transmitted to the requester within minutes of completing the collection and data reduction. In addition, the new architecture incorporates a network centric control ability, continuously optimizing tasking across all sensors in the network and ensuring success for high-priority missions. These capabilities mitigate single-site outages from weather, site maintenance, etc, and ensure missions are accomplished.
The new system improves the spectrum of operations of SSA, including GEODSS, providing characterization data including photometric and multi-spectral data. This allows for space object identification (SOI) to reduce cross-tagging of objects. Additionally, simultaneous collections by multiple sensors provide attitude recovery data for determining where a satellite may be looking. Future planned systems include a space based space surveillance (SBSS).
The space surveillance telescope (SST) will be 3.5-meter f/1 telescope with a large, curved focal plan array. Projected cost for the first telescope to be installed in New Mexico is $65 M. The space surveillance telescope (SST) program develops technology for the curved focal plan array sensors to enable innovative telescopes that combine high detection sensitivity, short focal length, wide field of view, and rapid step-and-settle to provide orders of magnitude improvements in space surveillance. The goal for the SST is a set of 5 of these advanced large telescopes in place by 2020.
The present invention improves SST performance and addresses some shortfalls.
The new invention is a gap-filler that is operable seven years in advance of the planned SST. The invention provides weather mitigation. Weather causes outages at all sites. A widely-distributed new network provides supporting partial back-up coverage in a cost-effective package.
The invention provides follow-on and hands-off tasking. When SST observations indicate that there is an object of interest, the SST system could pass that item to a network of the present invention for follow-on observations, allowing the SST telescope to return to its primary mission of synoptic search.
The invention provides contingency and recovery operations. If an SST site is down for any reason, the present new network sites with overlapping fields of regard provide coverage, preventing a mission-critical outage in space situation awareness. Rapidly deployable new system sites can be fielded to add capacity or to provide partial back-up service any time a site is down.
Relative to total space awareness the new invention is differentiated from SST. The new system provides timeliness of information. A new system gap-filler could be in use in 2011, and fully constructed in 2012, seven years in advance of the planned completed site SST system.
The new system provides expanded reach of operation. The ability of the new system extends night time operations into twilight, which extends reach of visible sensors. The infrared daylight capability provides daytime reach of operations.
The new system employs 9 sites and 27 sensors for a fraction of the cost of any other SSA asset. This geographic distribution and autonomous network sensor re-scheduling enables persistence of operations through weather and other planned or unplanned sensor outages.
The SST requires specially developed curved focal plan arrays, limiting the ability to change operations due to the lack of commercially available technology that can support the SST. The new system exploits the most advanced CTS technology, can be rapidly upgraded to support enhanced operations and can provide agility of operations unavailable from SST. Unlike the orbiting SBSS, sensors of the new system can be repaired and replaced inexpensively.
The new system provides the range of the spectrum of operations for SSA including SST by providing characterization data including photometric, multi-spectral data. This allows for space object identification (SOI) to reduce cross tagging of objects. Additionally, simultaneous imaging by multiple, distributed sensors improves the determination of satellite attitude.
The space based space surveillance (SBSS) system will be a visible-wavelength wide-field-of-view optical sensing satellite at an altitude of 800 kilometers in a near-polar sun-synchronous orbit. First launch is now planned for July 2009. Cost for the first satellite in the system is given by the Air Force as $823.9 M including ground based infrastructure. The nominal goal is for a constellation of 4 satellites by 2013. The initial satellite is expected to last about five years on orbit.
Relative to space awareness, the new system is differentiated from SBSS.
The new system provides timeliness of information and, as a gap-filler will be on line for 1-2% of the cost of SBSS. The first satellite for SBSS is planned for launch in July 2009 with potential future systems in discussion.
The new system provides resilience of operation. The new sensors are easier and less expensive to repair and maintain than a spaced-based asset. In an operational configuration, even a fully redundant and hardened system is orders of magnitude less expensive than a space-based system. Geographically dispersed ground stations are faster to deploy, cheaper to install, and easier to upgrade and maintain than a spaced-based system.
The new system provides agility of operations. The new ground-based asset can be upgraded to the latest technologies and methodologies at minimal cost. The new architecture continuously leverages advances in technology, whether developed by the government or industry.
The new system provides spectrum of operations and augments and improves the range of the spectrum of SSA operations supported by existing and planned SBSS, SST, etc. by providing ground-based agile, timely, persisting, globally reaching operations for GEO surveillance.
The invention fills current capability gaps now, at a very low cost, and provides data assurance for future systems, if and when they are deployed.
New automated ground stations require very little supporting infrastructure either in facilities or staffing and can adopt and prototype new technology quickly in the new network then lever them into other systems when they are mature.
The new system incorporates a data processing and data reduction control center. The system is offering more than just more metric and SOI collects. One of the plaguing issues today is that more data can be generated than can be converted into useful data products. The new network can generate intermediate and high-level data products in addition to providing a tremendous increase in capacity for metric and SOI collections.
The new invention incorporates into existing SSN command and control as well as into the extended space systems architecture SSA. The new system is usable immediately under existing conditions and doctrine. The data is available to the entire community via ESSA, and the architecture is designed from the ground up to be able to support the evolving net-centric systems.
These capabilities make an excellent adjust to existing acquisitions. It is possible to prototype hardware, software and systems that can later be leveraged into space-based systems (SBSS) or more expensive ground-based systems (SST). In addition, the new system has rapidly deployable mobile components. That makes it useful to cover for an existing sensor optical or radar and pick up part of their mission load if they are down for maintenance, or for any unplanned reason.
Faint near IR reflections from geosynchronous satellites, objects and photovoltaic arrays are detected in instruments with advanced detectors having low read noise and small pixels, simple light paths and small numbers of optical surfaces. The dedicated optical instruments have large focal ratios and large COTS apertures. The detecting of the IR reflections occurs during daytime, twilight and night. The large focal ratios reduce effect of sky brightness and lowering noise. The larger apertures improve target signal and increase signal to noise ratio.
Instrument clusters have no more than three lenses, dewar windows and filters. The instruments are IR cameras with serviceable dewar windows and full control chip setup software.
The faint near IR reflections are integrated through long integration times as information and then read.
The near IR cameras have detector chips that are removable and exchangeable. Cryogenic assemblies have changeable cold stops and near IR band filters in the cameras. Filters designed for improved signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) for imaging through the atmosphere are used in the near IR cameras. These include the J, H, Kshort, K, and potentially L filters. Combined Kshort and H near IR band filters are also used for daylight sensing. Filters specifically designed for particular site conditions are also used.
Reduced sky background is detected between a scattered sunlight region longer than 1 μm and shorter in wavelength than the thermal region which has wavelengths longer than 3 μm. InSb and HgCdTe detectors fully detect this range of wavelengths, from 1 to 3 microns.
Near IR cameras with cryogenic assemblies have IR band filters as described above in the cryogenic assemblies. The effects of the very bright background are removed by frame co-adding of hundreds of image frames and iteratively removing the background. This allows integration times of 1 second and obtains performance levels in detecting GEO satellites of more than 14th magnitude. 300 or more small pixels are used as the image frames. In one implementation, the pixel size is 20 microns square.
Conditions of GEO satellites and objects are obtained by dispersing the described systems around the world in GEO satellite positioning regions and directing the telescope and camera systems at known satellites and reporting status of the satellites.
A system has an instrument for faint IR detection from a geosynchronous object (GEO). The instrument is pointed at a known location of a GEO. The instrument has a large f-number (F#), a large aperture (which may be commercial, off-the shelf), a cryogenic assembly with changeable cold stop and near infrared filters (J, H, Kshort, K, L, and custom filters) and an advanced detector with low read noise and small pixels. Co-adding images from the hundreds of pixels reduces background noise and allows integration for one second or more.
These and further and other objects and features of the invention are apparent in the disclosure, which includes the above and ongoing written specification, with the claims and the drawings.
The instrument used with the invention is a dedicated system for IR faint GEO object detection rather than used as a multi-use or fast tracking sensor. Specifically, this means using an appropriately large F#, or focal ratio, a larger COTS aperture that is available and that can work within the physical constraints of other system components, and an advanced detector with low read noise and smaller pixels. Also, light paths are kept as simple as possible with the smallest number of optical surfaces.
Table 1 shows the performance results that can be achieved by modifying four specific areas with respect to current designs. Larger F#'s reduce the effect of sky brightness, and thus lower the noise. Larger apertures improve the target signal, thus increasing the signal to noise ratio signal to noise ratio (SNR). High performance cameras reduce camera read noise, and their smaller pixels modestly reduce noise from sky brightness.
The invention employs less optical surfaces than systems which are multi-use/multi-mission instruments. The new instrument cluster uses no more than three lenses, plus a dewar window and filters. Current systems use nine to fourteen lenses and tertiary mirrors. The extra complexity in the current systems is necessary because of their multi-use role; also, those instruments have relatively large field-of-view and small F#, which is required due to their mission role.
The new dedicated system has the effect of moving system performance from magnitude 7/8 to an improved performance of magnitude ˜10.
Applying technology developed under Oceanit's missile defense program to the GEO SSA problem provides improved performance and greater system flexibility. Oceanit has integrated IR systems with custom and commercially available IR sensors. These activities have included systems that operate at sea level, Makaha Ridge 1700 feet, and on air platforms at 40,000 feet.
A new configurable camera system is used with serviceable dewar and full control chip setup software. The camera system, from SEIR, is the de facto standard in the IR missile defense community for astronomical sensing and is commonly used for many test and experimental astronomy systems. The system allows flexible operation of cameras. Operation of the camera in Aintegrate then read@ mode instead of the typical Aintegrate while read@ mode allows longer integration times, which are appropriate for K band daytime observing. The best available detectors are used in the flexible camera system that allows detector chips to be changed out. Test, mid-performance, and high-performance configurations are available at different cost points.
Use of optimized filters and sensing bands; for example, Kshort filters (1.00 to 2.31Φm) are used for daylight sensing, as well as a dual band filter for a special sensing application. The Kshort band sensing filters produces superior ground-based results. Analysis shows that Kshort or a combined Kshort and H band are likely to provide a significant advantage for daytime missions. The Kshort senses in the reduced sky background between the scattered sunlight region (below 2 Φm) and the thermal region (above 2.5 Φm). The SEIR camera system allows the camera to be customized with these filters, which are inside the cryogenic chamber.
InSb and MCT detectors made from these materials are lower noise and offer more flexible choices for the spectral observing band than InGaAs cameras. InGaAs supports partial H only, whereas InSb and MCT support full H and K.
Table 2 shows a comparison of system performance. Together these technologies, as shown in Tables 1 and 2 provide a 2-3 magnitude performance increase, resulting in a total improvement (items 1 through 6) of ˜5 magnitudes or better. This brings the system performance into the 12th magnitude range or better.
Background mitigation and long integration times are provided. In addition to an optimized system and technology insertion improvements, the system incorporates sophisticated background mitigation techniques that are currently used on the largest telescopes in the world. These techniques enable longer integration and/or more extensive image frame co-adding than would otherwise be possible. Applying the sophisticated background mitigation, which was developed for nighttime IR observing, requires a multi-point dither or nodding observation pattern that is matched to the post-processing algorithms that are applied.
Table 3 shows continued comparison of system performance with frame co-adding without background mitigation produces improvement factors of ˜5×, which are consistent co-adding results.
Summarizing all of the improvements from best practice IR design, lessons-learned, and research to integrate high performance background mitigation, the total improvement is 8+ magnitudes. This results in a performance level of better than 14th magnitude, which meets an objective performance goal.
Table 4 compares a prototype system, Mojave and final target systems.
Two aspects involve specific innovations. These are: use of Kshort and/or combined Kshort plus H band filters, and use of sophisticated background mitigation in combination with co-adding of hundreds of image frames.
The choice of an optimal filter is complex and offers the opportunity of significantly improved performance. As indicated in tables 2 and 4 above the improvement is a factor of 3×. GEO objects are modeled as diffuse, reflective spheres, with an albedo of 0.2, and with a sun-object-observer angle (phase angle) of 60 degrees. A mean value of the solar illumination is reflected off of the object and is propagated through the atmosphere to the observer. By performing MODTRAN simulations, the absorption of the atmosphere can be modeled reasonably well, and thus the magnitude of the object can be estimated.
Using this transmittance, combined with the assumptions above, the peak of the GEO distribution is calculated to lie around magnitude 11 in Kshort. In addition, GEO satellites contain large solar cell arrays, which are more reflective in the infrared than in the visible. That is due to the optimization of the anti-reflection coatings on the solar cells to improve their sunlight-to-electricity conversion. In
Background mitigation is combined with co-adding. Co-adding frames, as shown in tables 3 and 4 above, can result in significant improvement in system performance. However, co-adding frames is complicated by naturally occurring variations in the sky background. The brightness of the sky, as seen in IR bands, varies in time across the entire field-of-view of a telescope system. The brightness of the sky also varies spatially within the field-of-view.
Total IR sky brightness within a telescope field-of-view can change on the order of 1% in one minute, as is shown in
Based on the Fourier frequency analysis, this variation begins to create difficulties when co-adding image frames to attain equivalent exposure times longer than 1 to 2 seconds, as well as for camera integration times longer than 1 to 2 seconds. Unless background mitigation techniques are employed, co-adding frames with varying background reduces the signal-to-noise ratio below that which would be achievable against a stable background. Shifting signals result in larger pixel-to-pixel standard deviation within the co-added images than would be the case with a stable background.
As an example, consider a case in which 30 one-second frames are co-added.
The AAverage@ line indicates the average sky value during this period. When these frames are co-added, about ⅓ of the values are so low that the target makes little or no contribution to the co-added result. The target contribution is reduced to about 2 in a few additional frames as well. This models the case of co-adding without background mitigation, and it is clear that the co-added SNR will be significantly reduced. This simulation considers temporal variation only and not the spatial variation within a frame, which will further degrade the co-added SNR.
A vacuum port 140 and a vacuum gauge 142 are connected to the camera head 120. A cryocooler assembly 150 is connected to the camera head. A cryocooler controller 152 is connected to the cryocooler 150.
Connections 160 include camera electronics 162, fiber optic cable 164 and a fiber interface 166.
A computer assembly 170 includes an instrument control computer 172, high precision timing 174 and a monitor 176.
Data processing cluster 180 includes compute nodes 182 and a disk storage system 184.
Communications 190 are provided by an internal ethernet 192. An ethernet router 194 provides a connection 196 to a telescope/observatory control system 198.
While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, modifications and variations of the invention may be constructed without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined in the following claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/283,155, filed Nov. 30, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
This invention was made with Government support under Contract [No.] awarded by [the Department of the Navy]. The Government has certain rights in this invention.
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