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Space domain awareness is the study and monitoring of satellites orbiting the Earth. It involves the detection, tracking, cataloging and identification of artificial objects, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris.
Aims
Space domain awareness accomplishes the following:
- Predicting when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere;
- Preventing a returning space object, which to radar looks like a missile, from triggering a false alarm in missile-attack warning sensors;
- Charting the present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital paths;
- Detecting new human-made objects in space;
- Producing a running catalogue of human-made space objects;
- Determining which country owns a re-entering space object;
- Informing countries whether or not objects may interfere with satellites and International Space Station orbits;
- Providing data for future anti-satellite weapons systems.
Systems
Systems include:
- The DEEP-Sight prototype, designed by Deepinder Uppal on behalf of the Defense Innovation Unit, this system is designed to provide space domain awareness across a broad-spectrum of SDA use cases to Space Force, the United States Navy and PSRA (Public Satellite Research and Analysis) teams.
- The United States Space Surveillance Network which has detectors such as the Space Fence (replacing the now defunct Air Force Space Surveillance System) and Space Surveillance Telescope
- The Russian Centre for Outer Space Monitoring with facilities such as Okno and Krona and Sazhen-S, used to analyse the orbital parameters of space craft.
- The French GRAVES (Grand Réseau Adapté à la Veille Spatiale) bi-static radar-based space surveillance system deploy by French Air Force
- The European Space Situational Awareness Programme with multiple assets in its Space Surveillance and Tracking Segment
- The Australian based Silentium Defence Oculus passive radar space observatory in Swan Reach, South Australia
- The American National Reconnaissance Office's Silentbarker satellites
References
- ^ "Space Surveillance". www.au.af.mil. Archived from the original on November 1, 2000. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
- "DIU".
- "World-class observatory to track space objects". www.space.gov.au. Australian Space Agrency. 14 November 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
- "Silentbarker". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
External links
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