Debris Telescopes catch objects in LEO zone

Paper number

IAC-10,A6,5,10,x8199

Author

Mr. Lorenzo Cibin, CGS S.p.A.Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Pier-Mario Besso, European Space Agency (ESA), Germany

Coauthor

Dr. Marco Chiarini, CGS S.p.A.Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio, Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Andrea Milani Comparetti, Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Roberto Ragazzoni, Italy

Year

2010

Abstract

Carlo Gavazzi Space SpA, INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica), DM (Dipartimento di Matematica Pisa) and ISTI-CNR (Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione), all members of the Italian Space Surveillance Team, were awarded the ESA SSA Feasibility study of an innovative system for debris surveillance. 
The aim of this paper is to present the architecture of the optical network  used for the monitoring of the upper part of the LEO region.  The proposed Optical Network will reduce both performance requirements and overall system costs compared to the radar system so far considered to be the  LEO observation baseline methodology.   
The feasibility of the proposed approach is sustained by an innovative optical telescope architecture with performances tailored for the Debris detection in any Earth orbit (including Near Earth Objects). The innovative approach will allow to achieve the challenging objective  to demonstrate  the “observability” of an object passing above a given station horizon despite the combination of demanding interplaying factors such as light, Earth shadow and clouds.
The architecture proposed is modular, flexible with a sharp vocation to an effective industrialization and world wide deployment with a dramatic reduction on costs playing on a good combination of innovation and available state of the art technologies.

Abstract document

IAC-10,A6,5,10,x8199.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-10,A6,5,10,x8199.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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