SRI International announced Oct. 4 that it has selected defense technology company Leidos and startup Scout Space as subcontractors for a space debris tracking project funded by the U.S. intelligence community. SRI, a nonprofit research institute based in Menlo Park, Calif., is one of four companies awarded a contract from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity to try to track small pieces of orbiting debris currently undetectable by ground-based sensors.

The project, known as Identification and Tracking of Space Debris (SINTRA), is expected to be completed within four years. IARPA is an agency under the Director of National Intelligence. IARPA wants to identify technologies and methods to successfully track debris objects less than 10 centimeters in length or the size of a credit card.

“Fine debris is an unaddressed and growing threat,” said SRI senior engineer and principal investigator Lyn van Nieustadt. Even small objects such as paint chips can seriously damage the spacecraft.

“It’s a difficult problem”

Although scientists have been working on this problem for decades, “looking at small objects is very difficult,” van Nieustadt said. Space News. SRI said it will try new approaches to analyzing radar data to focus on the smallest debris in low Earth orbit. “We hope to extend reliable tracking of objects in space to previously unobserved scales.”

Van Nieustadt noted that SRI has extensive experience using radar to track space objects. LeoLabs, which operates a global network of radar sensors for monitoring low Earth orbit, was founded in Menlo Park in 2016 by former SRI International executives. For the SINTRA project, SRI will not work with LeoLabs. It will use data from the research site the company operates for the National Science Foundation in Poker Flat, Alaska, and other ground-based sensors.

The company plans to examine data from various radar devices to see how radar signals currently being beamed into space from the transmitter’s large antennas might inadvertently reflect off small space debris and return to the receiver’s antennas. SRI operates a controlled radio telescope at Stanford University that will serve as a receiver.

“Improve the algorithm”

As the team begins collecting data, van Nieustadt said, “we will refine the algorithm to make it more accurate” so that smaller objects can be identified. “That’s the secret sauce we’re trying to find.” To collect the data in orbit, SRI will work with Scout Space, a space sensor startup based in Alexandria, Virginia.

Sergio Gallucci, Scout’s chief technical officer, said the company is developing a payload that will support the SINTRA project and other applications.

“Part of our efforts are to ensure interoperability with a variety of potential hosts to facilitate future deployment of our space debris-sensing payloads,” he said in a statement. Space News .

Scout said it plans to launch its payload in the near future. “This program can contribute to the tracking of space debris, but we primarily support the design, processing and use of solutions.” Reston, Virginia-based Leidos will undertake plasma modeling of the SINTRA project.

This will help investigate the types of signatures, or plasma waves, that debris creates as it passes through plasma in Earth’s upper atmosphere and through radiation clouds farther into space. The idea is to try to detect plasma waves using existing sensor technology.

“These plasma signatures may have been overlooked before because we did not look for them, not realizing their potential benefits,” said Tony van Aiken, director of SRI’s Geospace Research Center and one of the principal investigators. Source