Space Situational Awareness Programme

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The Space Safety Programme, formerly the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme, is the European Space Agency's (ESA) initiative to monitor hazards from space, determine their risk, make this data available to the appropriate authorities and where possible, mitigate the threat. [1]

Contents

The SSA Programme was designed to support Europe's independent space access and utilization through the timely and accurate information delivery regarding the space environment, particularly hazards to both in-orbit and ground infrastructure. [2] In 2019 it evolved into the present Space Safety Programme with an expanded focus, also including missions and activities to mitigate and prevent dangers from space. [3] The programme is split into four main segments: [4]

The Space Safety programme is being implemented as an optional ESA programme with financial participation by 14 Member States. The programme started in 2009 and its mandate was extended until 2019. The second phase of the programme received €46.5 million for the 2013–2016 period. [4]

Space weather segment

The main objective of the space weather segment (SWE) is to detect and forecast of space weather events, avoid adverse effect on European space assets and ground-based infrastructure. To achieve that, the segment will focus on delivery of real-time space weather information, forecasts and warnings, supported by a data archive, applications and services. Assets currently available for the segment consist of multiple ground-based and spaceborne sensors monitoring the Sun, solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere. These include the PROBA2 satellite and the Kanzelhoehe Solar Observatory. The segment is jointly coordinated by the SWE Data Centre located at the ESTRACK Redu Station and the SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre (SSCC), both in Belgium. [10]

Near-Earth object segment

The near-Earth object segment aims to deliver monitoring and warning of potential Earth impactors and tracking of newly discovered objects. The segment's current assets consist of a mixture of professional and amateur telescopes, including the OGS Telescope, that are supported by tracking databases. The plans are to create a fully integrated system supporting alerts for civil authorities, including the NEOSTEL flyeye telescope due for completion in 2020. The segment is operated by the SSA NEO Coordination Centre located at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, Italy. [11]

Space surveillance and tracking segment

The SST segment's primary goal is the detection, cataloguing and orbit prediction of objects orbiting the Earth. It is part of an effort to avoid collisions between orbiting satellites and debris, provide safe reentries, detect on-orbit explosions, assist missions at launch, deployment and end-of-life and overall reduce cost of space access. The segment currently relies on existing European radar and optical systems. Some of its assets are existing radio and optical telescopes, with now serving a secondary role for tracking space debris. [12]

The radar-based SST assets are split into two categories: surveillance and tracking systems. SSA SST radar systems include: [13]

SSA SST optical surveillance and tracking assets include: [14]

As part of the SSA Programme new, dedicated surveillance radar supported by optical sensors systems will be developed. The segment is coordinated by the Space Surveillance Test & Validation (SSTC) Centre located at the ESAC in Spain. [12]

Close approaches of Near-Earth objects and near earth asteroids are reported by ESA through the space situational awareness center. [16]

See also

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Beam park is a radar mode used for space surveillance, particularly tracking space debris. In beam-park mode, a radar beam is kept in a fixed direction with respect to the Earth, while objects passing through the beam are tracked. In 24 hours, as a result of the Earth’s rotation, the radar effectively scans a narrow strip through 360° of the celestial sphere. The scattered waves are detected by a receiver and the measurements obtained during the observations can be used to determine object radar cross-section, time of peak occurrence, polarization ratio, doppler shift and object rotation. The obtained information for each object is then processed and matched against data from previously catalogued objects. The beam-park mode can be used to detect both previously known and uncatalogued objects at any altitude, provided that the reflected power captured by the receiver can be distinguished from the noise. This limits the use of radar-based beam park observations to objects in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). Optical instruments, in turn, have very good performance for objects in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and in Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The radar technique typically outperforms optical facilities in LEO and can conduct observations for longer periods, both during day and night, independently of the weather and object illumination by sunlight.

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References

  1. ↑ "Space Safety - Plans for the future". ESA.
  2. ↑ "About SSA". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  3. ↑ ESA (9 Oct 2018). "Plans for the future". ESA.
  4. 1 2 "Space Safety main page". Space Safety. ESA. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  5. ↑ "Space weather and its hazards". ESA. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  6. ↑ "Planetary Defence". ESA. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  7. ↑ "About asteroids and Planetary Defence". ESA. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  8. ↑ "Space sustainability rating to shine a light on debris problem". ESA. 2021-06-17.
  9. ↑ "Clean Space - The Challenge". ESA.
  10. ↑ "SWE Segment". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  11. ↑ "NEO Segment". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  12. 1 2 "SST Segment". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  13. ↑ "Europe's Radar Space Surveillance and Tracking Sensors". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  14. ↑ "Europe's Optical Space Surveillance and Tracking Sensors". ESA. Retrieved 2015-05-03.
  15. ↑ "FLYEYE TELESCOPE". ESA. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  16. ↑ "Upcoming close approaches to earth". ESA. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
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