Optical Orbital Debris Spotter

The fundamental concept for the orbital debris detection sensor is to create a continuous light sheet by using a collimated light source, such as a low power laser, and a conic mirror. The key idea of this concept is to form a... [ view full abstract ]

The fundamental concept for the orbital debris detection sensor is to create a continuous light sheet by using a collimated light source, such as a low power laser, and a conic mirror. The key idea of this concept is to form a permanently illuminated light sheet rather than scanning a beam. This way, all particles intersecting the beam will scatter the light from the source, independent of the time of intersection with the plane of the light sheet. The knowledge of the light sheet geometry and the angles of the scattering event with respect to a camera, derived from the signal location on the sensor, allow the determination of the intersection point, and possibly even size, and shape information about the debris particle. The sensor concept, weighing approximately two kilograms and measuring approximately 10cm x 10cm x 20cm, depending on specific implementation, could gather valuable input for modeling and prediction software that is starved for information on small debris pieces [Englert et al., Acta Astronautica, 104, 99-105, doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2014.07.031, 2014].

 .