First results from the deployment of Expert Centres supporting optical and laser observations in a European Space Surveillance and Tracking System.

Abstract

The European Space Agency (ESA) continues its Space Situational Awareness (SSA) pogramme with three segments; Space Weather (SWE), Near Earth Objects (NEO) and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST). A total of 19 member states of ESA participate in the SSA programme, of which 11 subscribed to the SST segment. SST work focusses on the development of the technologies for detection, cataloguing and follow-up of space objects, alongside the derived applications and services for conjunction event prediction, re-entry predictions, and fragmentation event detection. During period 3 of the programme (2017 to 2020), the SST segment aims tosuccessfully establish expert centres for optical and laser ranging observations. This objective addresses the need for networking and integration of heterogeneous sensors in a coherent SST segment. The expert centre serves as the focal point for the interfacing with system-external sensors and assets. This centre is designed to interface with system-external data sources to not only request and manage observations but also provide feedback on the received data. We report on the development and deployment of the Expert Centre with special focus being on the first deployment completed in Summer 2017. We present the demonstrated capabilities for coordination and monitoring of sensors and data providers, whilst reporting on the achievements for providing feedback to sensor operators, such as in particular for sensor qualification and calibration. We conclude with an outlook on the furtherwork and overall strategy.