Historical Trends in GroundBased Optical Space ...（历史趋势在GroundBased光学空间u2026u2026）.pdfVIP

Historical Trends in Ground-Based Optical Space Surveillance System Design Michael A. Shoemaker Lewis E. Shroyer The Boeing Company ABSTRACT An historical overview of ground-based optical space surveillance systems is provided, with specific emphasis on gathering metrics to analyze design trends. Systems are categorized by their orbit determination or space object identification purposes, the orbital regime of their targets, and their industry segment. The influence that commercial off-the-shelf equipment has had on capabilities is also explored, particularly regarding amateur systems. The data clearly show an early emphasis on low Earth orbit (LEO) observations, followed by renewed interest in geosynchronous objects (GEO). Overall, LEO systems show increasing aperture over time, with both LEO and GEO systems generally having decreasing field of view. 1. INTRODUCTION In the spirit of the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first man-made satellite, an historical overview of ground-based optical space surveillance systems is provided. Specific emphasis is given on gathering metrics to analyze design trends. The subject of space surveillance spans the history of spaceflight: from the early tracking cameras at missile ranges, the first observations of Sputnik, to the evolution towards highly capable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems, and much in between. Whereas previous reviews in the literature have been limited in scope to specific time periods, operational programs, countries, etc., a broad overview of a wide range of sources is presented. This review is focused on systems whose primary design purpose can be classified as Space Object Identification (SOI) or Orbit Determination (OD). SOI systems are th