Satellite Technologies for Space Situational Awareness (SSA)

空间系统在包括国家安全和资源管理在内的我们日常生活的各个方面发挥着重要和不可或缺的作用。因此，保护我们在太空中的宝贵资产至关重要。近年来，不断增加的驻留空间物体（rso）已成为全球关注的一个重要问题。在拟议的NSERC联盟计划中，我们建议研究一种新的方法来开发空间监视和空间态势感知技术（ssa -对空间条件和威胁的连续监测）。特别是，我们建议使用宽视场（FOV）、低分辨率成像仪进行天基探测、跟踪、识别和表征rso，包括自然/人工、友好/敌对空间资产、碎片、近地小行星、空间相关威胁和空间危害；并支持即将到来的SSA微型卫星任务。麦哲伦计划在其温尼伯工厂执行任务级管理以及微卫星总线的设计、制造、组装和测试。作为研究合作伙伴，我们在约克大学的团队将为本提案中概述的初步背景研究和核心技术开发做出贡献。拟议的联盟计划包括两个主要部分：第一阶段-背景研究（前18个月）和第二阶段-任务设计（第2年至第5年）。在第一阶段，我们提出了对SSA卫星技术的三个关键领域进行研究，即：(1)驻留空间目标（RSO）观测预测，(2)FPGA跟踪算法实现和(3)RSO识别。这些技术可以在任何具有光学成像硬件的航天器上运行，包括通常用于姿态确定的商业恒星跟踪器。在第二阶段，我们将为即将到来的微卫星任务开发、测试、集成和演示拟议的有效载荷。这将利用与DRDC以及其他学术和行业合作伙伴正在进行的研究，其雄心勃勃的目标是为太空中的SSA提供加拿大制造的解决方案。

Space systems play an important and integral role in every facet of our daily lives, including national security and resource management. Therefore, it is critical to protect our valuable assets in space. In recent years, the growing numbers of resident space objects (RSOs) have become a significant concern worldwide. In the proposed NSERC Alliance program, we propose to examine a novel approach to develop technologies for space surveillance and space situational awareness (SSA-continuous monitoring of conditions and threats in space). In particular, we propose to use wide field-of-view (FOV), low resolution imagers for space-based detection, tracking, identification and characterization of RSOs, including natural/artificial, friendly/adversarial space assets, debris, near-Earth asteroids, space-related threats, and space hazards; and to support the upcoming SSA Microsatellite mission. Magellan plans to perform mission-level management as well as the design, manufacture, assembly, and test of the microsatellite bus at its Winnipeg facilities. As a research partner, our team at York will contribute to the initial background research and core technology development, outlined in this proposal. The proposed Alliance program consists of two main components: Phase 1 - Background Research (first 18 months) and Phase 2 - Mission Design (Years 2 through 5). In the first phase, we propose to examine three key areas of satellite technologies for SSA, namely (1) Resident Space Object (RSO) observation prediction, (2) tracking algorithm implementation on FPGA and (3) RSO identification. These technologies can operate on any spacecraft with optical imaging hardware, including commercial star trackers commonly used for attitude determination. In the second phase, we will develop, test, integrate and demonstrate the proposed payload for upcoming microsatellite mission. This leverages on-going research in collaboration with DRDC and other academic and industry partners with the ambitious goal to provide Canadian-made solutions to SSA from space.