SBIR-STTR Award

This topic is designed by the US Air Force to develop a space based space surveillance sensor to be mounted aboard an orbiting asset for protection. Proposed herein is a Dual Mode Sensor (DMS) system that: (1) Provides spherical WFOV situational awareness and threat object detection at sufficient range to allow defensive action to be taken to avoid an incident. (2) Provides both excellent range resolution and cross range resolution. (3) Provides 360 degree coverage in one plane and approximately 90 degrees coverage in the orthogonal plane. (4) Detects objects such as satellites, debris, deliberate missiles, etc. (5) Covers range as close as three meters to maximum range of ten kilometers. (6) Incorporates dual mode operating and tracking software and data fusion processor. (7) Incorporates threat assessment software. (8) Meets Size, Weight, and Power requirements. (9) Provides reconfigurable search (adaptive imaging), such that a wide FOV search is followed by a high resolution, fast update scan, which allows all detected objects to be tracked, mapped and characterized for threat evaluation. (10) Meets minimum specifications including: update rate of <30 Hz, angle resolution better than 10 micro-radians and scalable magnification factor from 1:1 to 1:25. (11) Limits vulnerability to counter-measures.

Benefit:
Phase I will primarily involve an important SBSP system trade study and test program to evaluate the ability of emerging millimeter radar technology and EO/IR sensor technology, operating in dual mode, to be used for threat object detection and tracking for input to the satellite flight control system for threat avoidance. Phase II development will include sensor fabrication including processor, lightweight millimeter wave radar and EO/IR sensor plus fused signal processing as part of the brass-board demonstration. An initial avenue to commercialization is for the defense application intended by the US Air Force in this solicitation. In the commercial/industrial markets are similar applications involving obstacle detection and avoidance for commercial communication satellites.

Keywords:
Wide Field-Of-View, Spherical Coverage, Adaptive Imaging, Object Threat Detection