Abstract
The main purpose of the “Pi of the Sky” system is to investigate short timescale astrophysical phenomena (particularly gamma-ray bursts, optical transients and variable stars). Wide field, short exposures and full automation of the system, together with effective algorithms, give good prospects for effective identification of space debris elements. These objects can be a great danger for current and future space missions, and should be continuously monitored and cataloged. Algorithms for identifying optical transients (OT), designed for the “Pi of the Sky” experiment enable moving objects like planes, satellites and space debris elements to be identified. The algorithm verifies each OT candidate against a database of known satellites and is also able to automatically self-identify moving objects not present in this database. The data collected by the prototype in the Las Campanas Observatory enabled us to obtain a large sample of observations of moving objects. Some of these objects were identified as high-orbit geostationary (GEO) satellites, which shows that it is possible to observe even distant satellites with small aperture photo lenses. The analysis of the sample is still going on. The preliminary results and algorithms for automatic identification of moving objects will be described here.
Highlights
Space debris consists of objects originally launched by humans, which orbit the Earth but are no longer in use
The algorithms designed for identifying the short optical transients in the “Pi of the Sky” data are described in detail in [6]
The efficiency of identifying moving objects by the normal track procedure was studied by checking how many of the satellites identified in the Two Line Elements (TLE) database were later identified in the track procedure
Summary
Space debris consists of objects originally launched by humans, which orbit the Earth but are no longer in use They can be upper stages of rockets, dead satellites, engine modules of geostationary satellites, remnants from satellite collisions, etc. The first stage of such a system is the European Space Surveillance System (ESSS) [2], which was proposed for automatic detection and identification of space debris pieces, and for determining orbital elements It will track objects from LEO orbits and predict their movements. Examples of European telescopes already tracking elements in the Earth orbit are TAROT (FOV of 2◦ × 2◦) and Starbrook (FOV of 10◦ × 6◦) [2] Another component of this system will be widefield optical systems like “Pi of the Sky”.
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