2018 Physics/Theoretical Colloquium

Thursday, December 6, 2018

3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

Rosen Auditorium (TA-53, Bldg. 1)

Refreshments at 3:15pm

 

Speaker:   Rebecca Holmes

LANL Space Science & Applications, ISR-1

 

“Space Traffic Management and Why Satellites Need License Plates”

 

Abstract:  

An overview of the space traffic management problem will be presented, as well as a LANL-developed solution in the form of a tiny optical satellite “license plate” called ELROI.

Earth orbit is crowded, with over 19,000 space objects currently tracked and monitored by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Tracking these objects—from active satellites to dead rockets and debris fragments—provides essential orbit information to satellite operators and is used to prevent collisions. Because most space objects can’t be identified just by looking at them, identity is maintained by continuous tracking with radar, starting at launch. Sudden orbit changes or interruption in tracking can lead to confusion about an object’s identity, and many expensive observations may be needed to re-identify it. Small satellites such as CubeSats are also difficult to identify after they are launched in groups of 100+ at a time. ELROI (Extremely Low-Resource Optical Identifier) is a new optical technology that encodes a satellite ID number in short flashes of laser light, which can be read using a small ground telescope and a photon-counting sensor. ELROI is solar-powered, small, and lightweight. The first ELROI orbital prototype is scheduled to launch as soon as December 2018, as a payload on the student CubeSat NMTSat.