https://exoanalytic.com/space-situational-awareness/EXOANALYTIC SPACE OPERATIONS CENTER (ESpOC)
Our telescope network is powered by the ExoAnalytic Space Operations Center (ESpOC) software suite. The ESpOC command center enables automated command and control of individual telescopes, and remote command and control of all network sensors. ESpOC automatically integrates and fuses data from multiple sensors in real-time to enable closed-loop tracking and catalog maintenance. Unique ESpOC visualization capabilities provide real-time, full-motion video by overlaying all collected data for a full-sky common operational picture.
SPACE CATALOG
ExoAnalytic Solutions maintains a unique, robust, and independent catalog of satellites and debris. Using data from the ExoAnalytic Global Telescope Network, we routinely track, catalog, and maintain custody of thousands of space objects. Observation data is continuously correlated to objects in the catalog as it streams into the ExoAnalytic Solutions command center from our global sensors. This unique capability provides a variety of SSA services and supports tools that enable our customers to produce their own catalogs.
SPACE OBJECT CATALOG
To improve understanding of the population of near-earth objects, ExoAnalytic Solutions maintains a catalog of
one-meter sized objects in the
near-GEO region. We typically collect measurements on
~1,500 man-made space objects each night and use these measurements to maintain an independent space catalog. Observations are continuously streamed from ExoAnalytic sensors and we produce updated orbits every 15 minutes.
CORRELATION AND UCT PROCESSING
ESpOC catalog tools autonomously correlate known tracked objects to objects in our database containing identifying information (e.g., satellite number, common name, etc.). For unknown objects (i.e. objects that cannot be correlated to a catalog), we perform an initial orbit determination and maintain the objects as uncorrelated tracks (UCTs). BruteStack is our UCT discovery tool that provides track-to-track association and outlier rejection. BruteCorr provides tracklet to catalog correlation, multi-sensor correlation, and ambiguous track processing.
ORBIT DETERMINATION
EigenOrbitFitter provides high-fidelity batch fit orbit determination using 2-D line of sight measurements to produce an orbit estimate in the form of 3-D position and velocity vectors and a 6×6 covariance matrix. EigenOrbitFitter has been validated against WAAS satellite truth orbits with <10m error near GEO, and has been used to discover momentum impulse changes as small as ~1mm/s.
SATELLITE MEASUREMENT DATA
The ExoAnalytic Global Telescope Network collects more than 8 million measurements per month of man-made satellites and debris. Our sensors collect angular astrometric (RA and DEC) and photometric visual magnitude measurements. Customers who seek to maintain a catalog or keep an eye on their high-value assets rely on us to provide the highest quality data in the world on-demand.
SATELLITE MEASUREMENT DATA
Data is our calling card. We take great pride in the quality of our data, and we take no shortcuts in the data production process.We deliver an unprecedented quantity of the highest quality data in real-time. This is the foundation of our Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services, the feedstock for our SSA and Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) algorithms, and it is revolutionizing SSA globally.
ExoAnalytic Solutions has operated our global network of telescopes continuously since November 2013, when we fielded our first automated observatory. On Thanksgiving Day 2016, we collected our
100,000,000th correlated measurement. Today, we collect
~8 million correlated measurements of man-made space objects
each month. As we grow, we keep our focus on one simple idea – produce the best data, in the highest quantity possible, at the best price available.
DATA COLLECTION AND SENSOR TASKING
ExoAnalytic has a variety of data collection and delivery services to meet our customer’s needs. Customers wanting to develop their own catalogs utilize our Tiered Subscription services that consist of many telescopes distributed globally that provide data utilizing a variety of search and survey routines. Other customers are only interested in a few satellites (typically their own) and utilize Individual Telescope tasking to direct our collections. Our data collection services are tailored to each customer’s needs and include automated delivery as well as training on the use of our data with their in-house tools.
ROUTINE SENSOR CALIBRATION
ExoAnalytic conducts routine sensor calibration and reports associated weights, biases, and characterization accuracy internally on at least a weekly basis for each sensor. Our sensor calibration process has been validated by many government and commercial users.
DATA DESCRIPTION
ExoAnalytic telescopes collect angles-only astrometric measurements (RA and DEC) and photometric measurements (visual magnitude). We collect, process, and disseminate real-time observations with data Quality of Service (QoS) that meets the following performance metrics:
100% global coverage of GEO, HEO, MEO orbits
Provide detections with astrometric error between 0.1-0.5 arcseconds
Provide detections of objects as dim as 18.5 visual magnitude (Vmag)
Provide detections with timing precision less than 10 milliseconds
Performance of routine calibration, reporting of sensor and noise bias
TELESCOPE OPERATION
The ESpOC sensor operator package turns any telescope into an SSA machine! ESpOC technology supports any optical sensor design configuration and has been used on more than 100 different telescope and camera configurations. Telescopes running ESpOC have automated:
Image registration (position accuracy)
Image calibration (brightness accuracy)
Man-made space object detection (find all objects)
Object correlation (know what they are)
Catalog maintenance (know where they are)
Orbit updates (know where they are going)
BATTLE MANAGEMENT COMMAND AND CONTROL (BMC2)
Our BMC2 tools are battle tested on a
network of ~150 sensors and have supported steady state and emergency satellite operations for over 3 years. ExoAnalytic BMC2 enables the efficient and effective allocation of sensor resources to provide rapid space situational awareness, and to rapidly recommend appropriate operator responses to events in space. Our ESpOC sensor status suite (ESpOC S3) provides real-time observatory and sensor availability and performance conditions. ESpOC Task Manager is a dynamic sensor tasking algorithm that delivers tasking via machine-to-machine interface for all network sensors. Our Ontological Sensor Management and Adaptable Real-Time Tasking (O-SMART) module, developed for the Missile Defense Agency, optimizes tasking across the detect, track, characterize process while adaptively responding to environmental changes, evolving threat assessments, and changing priorities.
SSA SERVICES
As operators of the world’s premier SSA telescope network, ExoAnalytic Solutions is uniquely positioned to support a wide variety of space industry needs. Our team of SSA professionals offers custom solutions for satellite operations throughout the spacecraft lifecycle. These services include launch monitoring, conjunction analysis, warning and secondary screening, anomaly detection and resolution. We also regularly provide customized services designed to help satellite operators ensure safety and cost-effectiveness.
DEDICATED TRACKING FOR PRECISION ORBIT DETERMINATION
Through dedicated satellite tracking of spacecraft using our global network of sensors, ExoAnalytic Solutions helps customers achieve
sub-30 meter orbit solutions. These high-precision orbits support numerous missions that rely on precise knowledge of satellite positioning as well as improved safety of flight for satellites operating in dense clusters.
