An Innovative, Near-real-time Approach to Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Data Simulation
Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is vital to maintaining our Space Superiority. We present an innovative, high fidelity, time-based simulation tool, RT-PROXOR™ (Real Time Proximity Operations and Rendering), which supports SSA by generating realistic mission scenarios including sensor frame data with corresponding truth. This unique and critical tool supports mission architecture studies, new capability development and…
Future Use Cases for Hallmark Space Situational Awareness Architecture
Most major collisions in Earth’s orbit are not detected until after they occur. This includes the 2009 collision between a defunct Cosmos satellite and an operational Iridium communications satellite. The fact that this collision took both NASA and the US Military by surprise caused no small amount of consternation in the public, along with several…
An Innovative, Dual Use Star Tracker for Detecting Dim Objects for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) while Enabling Attitude Determination
Space Situational Awareness situational awareness (SSA) is an emerging area of growing complexity given the increasing number of satellites flown for the military, commercial, and civil applications plus other orbital debris. With the this increasingly congested and contested environment, there is a growing need for new systems with enhanced capabilities to detect and track these…
Model-Based Systems Engineering for Space Architecture Trade Studies
Systems engineering has continued to evolve over the last few decades from document-based system design and tracking of requirements to what is now commonly known as Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). MBSE is an evolutionary approach in the discipline of systems engineering where rules, descriptive interconnectivity, and physics-based digital models of the structure and behavior of…
Advanced Enterprise Situational Awareness Reporting For Enhancing Space Operations
Enterprise Satcom networks generate end-to-end Situational Awareness (SA) combining Space, Security, Network, and Cyber operations to inform Space Operations decisions. This SA extends from Warfighter Applications through the Space systems to DoD networks or DoDIN to make informed decisions in conflict. This information provides a comprehensive picture of the health of the networks used by…
Developing Machine Learning Solutions for Space Missions
A space mission with both space and ground assets can be regarded as a dynamic system, which is time dependent and nondeterministic. Situational awareness of a dynamic system is defined as the ability to perceive, analyze, and predict its own behaviors. The architectural model for a machine learning(ML) solution involves four key data processing blocks:…
Event Detection from RF Sensing
RF monitoring is currently underutilized in today’s Space Situational Awareness architectures. Providing RF situational awareness is critical to protecting C2 and mission data satellite links. According to Air Force Doctrine, SSA includes components of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), space environmental monitoring, and space warning functions. Monitoring of the local RF environment near a ground…
Recent Events and Highlights in GEO SSA
The rate at which space traffic density has increased has seen much acceleration in recent years. It is expected for this trend to continue as various contributors to the commercial space market plan constellations that are orders of magnitude larger than has been flown to date. Commercial companies, such as ExoAnalytic Solutions, have deployed ground…
Responsive SSA – Responding to New Space and Old Problems
The space environment is becoming complicated by the layering of new space system architectures and a diversity of new spacefaring entities layered on top of the existing derelict debris population. This dynamic situation will require more responsive space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities to efficiently respond to the changing nature of space operations without looking past…
NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA HQ
NASA and its partners maintain a watch for Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), asteroids and comets that pass within Earth’s vicinity, as part of an ongoing effort to discover, catalog, and characterize these bodies and to determine if any pose an impact threat. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is responsible for: • Ensuring the early detection…