Optical Observation Technologies for Space Debris
- Paper number
IAC-06-B6.1.05
- Author
Dr. Atsushi Nakajima, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (IAT/JAXA), Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Hirohisa Kurosaki, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Year
2006
- Abstract
For the development of the optical observation technologies for space debris, Institute of Aerospace Technology(IAT) of JAXA has prepared new optical observation facility at Nyukasa-yama mountain in Nagano Prefecture. 35cm Newtonian optical telescope with 2K2K CCD camera and 25cm BRC optical telescope with 4K4K CCD camera on each equatorial mount are used for the observation. These telescopes are located at an altitude of 1,870 meters. The optical environment of this observation site provides good condition for faint objects detection; 21st magnitude asteroids can be detectable by this small aperture telescope. One of the most important study item in our R\&D is to develop an automatic small size GEO debris detection software. In usual case, a long exposure time is necessary to detect faint object by accumulating weak light energy during the time. On the contrary, short exposure observation is necessary for GEO debris detection to avoid the influence of the fixed star streaks image. We have proposed a stacking method for detecting noise level faint GEO debris by accumulating the signals of a number of images, for example, a hundred frames. Another research item is to develop a high-speed read/write CCD camera. High efficiency back illuminated 1K1K and 2K2K CCD cameras were developed and 4K4K CCD camera is under testing. The read/write time of the 4K4K CCD camera is about 10 seconds, which is cooled by a sterling engine refrigerator. This paper introduces the JAXA’s new facility for space debris observation and describes some developing technologies and evaluated results.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-06-B6.1.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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