Space domain awareness
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 teams.
- The United States Space Surveillance Network which has detectors such as the Space Fence 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