PMID- 37514889
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20230731
IS  - 1424-8220 (Electronic)
IS  - 1424-8220 (Linking)
VI  - 23
IP  - 14
DP  - 2023 Jul 21
TI  - Stratospheric Night Sky Imaging Payload for Space Situational Awareness (SSA).
LID - 10.3390/s23146595 [doi]
LID - 6595
AB  - Space situational awareness (SSA) refers to collecting, analyzing, and keeping 
      track of detailed knowledge of resident space objects (RSOs) in the space 
      environment. With the rapidly increasing number of objects in space, the need for 
      SSA grows as well. Traditional methods rely heavily on imaging RSOs from large, 
      narrow field-of-view (FOV), ground-based telescopes. This research outlines the 
      technology demonstration payload, Resident Space Object Near-space Astrometric 
      Research (RSONAR)-a star tracker-like, wide FOV camera combined with commercial 
      off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware to image RSOs from the stratosphere, overcoming the 
      disadvantages of ground-based observations. The hardware components and software 
      algorithm are described and evaluated. The eligibility of the payload for SSA is 
      proven by the image processing algorithms, which detect the RSOs in the images 
      captured during flight and the survival of the COTS components in the near-space 
      environment. The payload features a low-resolution, wide FOV camera coupled with 
      a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based platform that houses the altitude 
      and time-based image capture algorithm. The newly developed payload in a 
      2U-CubeSat form factor was flown as a space-ready payload on the CSA/CNES 
      stratospheric balloon research platform to carry out algorithm and functionality 
      tests in August 2022.
FAU - Kunalakantha, Perushan
AU  - Kunalakantha P
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
FAU - Baires, Andrea Vallecillo
AU  - Baires AV
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
FAU - Dave, Siddharth
AU  - Dave S
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
FAU - Clark, Ryan
AU  - Clark R
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
FAU - Chianelli, Gabriel
AU  - Chianelli G
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
FAU - Lee, Regina S K
AU  - Lee RSK
AD  - Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Toronto, 
      ON M3J 1P3, Canada.
LA  - eng
GR  - RGPIN-2019-06322/Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council/
GR  - 19FAYORA12/Canadian Space Agency/
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20230721
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - Sensors (Basel)
JT  - Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
JID - 101204366
SB  - IM
PMC - PMC10384062
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
OT  - resident space objects (RSOs)
OT  - space situational awareness (SSA)
OT  - star tracker
OT  - stratospheric balloon
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2023/07/29 11:50
MHDA- 2023/07/29 11:51
PMCR- 2023/07/21
CRDT- 2023/07/29 01:43
PHST- 2023/06/15 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/07/14 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2023/07/18 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2023/07/29 11:51 [medline]
PHST- 2023/07/29 11:50 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/07/29 01:43 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/07/21 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - s23146595 [pii]
AID - sensors-23-06595 [pii]
AID - 10.3390/s23146595 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Sensors (Basel). 2023 Jul 21;23(14):6595. doi: 10.3390/s23146595.