The optical orbital debris measurement program at NASA and AMOS Original Research Article

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been making optical observations of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) orbital debris environment. NASA operates two telescopes located near Cloudcroft, NM that obtain these observations. The 3.0 m Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT) is used for LEO observations and the 0.32 m Charged Coupled Device (CCD) Debris Telescope (CDT) is used for GEO observations. The optical observations are being used to help characterize the debris environment in LEO and GEO and to assist in the modeling projections generated by NASA. NASA is also collaborating with the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site (AMOS), which is located at the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala on the island of Maui. There are three main observational programs at AMOS. There is an imaging program utilizing the 3.67 m telescope adaptive optics system to image objects that have had anomalous events or breakups. There is a spectroscopic program utilizing spectrographs on the 3.67 and 1.6 m telescopes to determine surface materials. There is also a program utilizing instrumentation on the 3.67 m telescope to determine the albedo of objects based upon simultaneous visible and thermal IR photometry. AMOS is also obtaining statistical observations of the GEO debris environment supporting NASA and the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) activities using the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) camera on the 1.2 m telescope, In addition, a renovated Baker-Nunn telescope is available for observations. Results from these observation programs will be presented, as well as future plans.