Grant Stokes

Initial asteroid detection results using the Space Surveillance Telescope

The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), conducted asteroid search from 1998 to 2013 using two 1m optical telescopes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL) Experimental Test Site (ETS) in Socorro, NM. During this period, the LINEAR program made significant contributions to the discovery of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), thereby improving knowledge of the NEO size distribution and helping to characterize the threat from NEOs. The LINEAR program has now transitioned to operations using the new 3.5 m wide-field-of-view Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) located at the Atom Site on White Sands Missile Range, NM. The SST was developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by MITLL to advance the nations capabilities in space situational awareness. The goals of LINEAR using SST are to continue discovering NEOs, to improve knowledge of the NEO size distribution down to 140 m, and to discover small (2-15 m diameter) NEOs potentially suitable for a NASA asteroid retrieval mission. This paper will describe the capabilities of SST for asteroid search, the strategy for LINEAR search using SST, and the new LINEAR SST processing pipeline. Recent simulation, observing, and detection results will also be presented, along with planned improvements to the system.

Air Force Planetary Defense System: Initial Field Test Results

Over the past several years, the Air Force has been developing new devices and technology for the detection and tracking of earth orbiting satellites. This technology has been targeted to provide an upgraded capability for an operational space surveillance system called GEODSS. Currently, a number of GEODSS systems are deployed around the world as part of the world-wide space surveillance system operated by the US Air Force. Each GEODSS site is currently equipped with 1-meter class telescopes and EBSICON detector systems which represent 1970s technology. The Air Force is now in the process of upgrading the GEODSS system to achieve the performance offered by state of the art detector systems. Under Air Force sponsorship, Lincoln Laboratory has developed a new generation of sensitive, large format, frame transfer CCD focal planes for GEODSS. These focal planes have been installed in a new generation of cameras and are currently undergoing testing at the Lincoln Laboratory Experimental Test Site (ETS). When equipped with the new focal plane and camera technology, the modest sized GEODSS telescopes have considerable capability to conduct large coverage, sensitive searches for earth crossing asteroids. Theoretical analysis has indicated that the CCD equipped GEODSS telescope will be capable of achieving a limiting magnitude of 22, over a 2 sq/deg field of view, with about 100 seconds of integration. This is comparable to the sensitivity of considerably larger telescopes equipped with current cameras. In addition to the high sensitivity, the CCD is configured for frame transfer operations which are well suited to asteroid search operations. This paper will present the results of the initial system tests conducted at the ETS and will discuss how this technology fits into a concept of operations for a planetary defense system based on the Air Force developed technology.

Asteroid search operations with the space surveillance telescope

Over the past two years, the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has transitioned to asteroid search operations using the new 3.5-meter wide-field-of-view Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) located at the Atom Site on White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The SST was developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by MIT Lincoln Laboratory to help advance the nations capabilities in space situational awareness. The goals of LINEAR using SST are to continue discovering Near-Earth objects (NEOs) especially focusing on improving knowledge of asteroids 140 meters in diameter and larger. In this paper, we will review results of the first two years of asteroid search operations, during which the SST has delivered over 9.4 million observations to the Minor Planet Center. Recent and planned system improvements will also be discussed.