Prospect for cislunar spacecraft and near-earth asteroid detection using heliostat fields at night

John V. Sandusky

doi:10.1117/12.3028242

4 October 2024 Prospect for cislunar spacecraft and near-earth asteroid detection using heliostat fields at night

John V. Sandusky

Proceedings Volume 13149, Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2024; 1314919 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3028242
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2024, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

I experimentally investigated and modeled a proposed frequency-domain method for detecting and tracking cislunar spacecraft and near-earth asteroids using heliostat fields at night. Unlike imaging, which detects spacecraft and asteroids by their streak in star-fixed long-exposure photographs, the proposed detection method oscillates the orientation of heliostats concentrating light from the stellar field and measures the light’s photocurrent power spectrum at sub-milliHertz resolution. If heliostat oscillation repetitively traces out a closed loop fixed to the stars, light from spacecraft or asteroids moving along that loop produce photocurrent at a frequency slightly shifted from starlight. The frequency shift is proportional to the spacecraft or asteroid’s apparent angular rate relative to sidereal. Relative phase corresponds to relative angular position, enabling tracking. Since heliostats are inexpensive compared to an astronomical observatory and otherwise unused at night, the proposed method may cost-effectively augment observatory systems such as NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

Conference Presentation

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

John V. Sandusky "Prospect for cislunar spacecraft and near-earth asteroid detection using heliostat fields at night", Proc. SPIE 13149, Unconventional Imaging, Sensing, and Adaptive Optics 2024, 1314919 (4 October 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3028242

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