Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Deploying Electro-Optical Telescopes for Satellite Tracking on High Altitude Powered Platforms

摘要

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the possible benefits of an air based system of electro-optical satellite tracking telescopes. A computerized simulation model was developed to conduct a comparative analysis of a hypothetical system of air based telescopes with the Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) System. The simulation includes a first order optimization process for selecting a satellite surveillance system and a many-on-many engagement model to test the effectiveness of the surveillance system selected. In addition, the user can input a preselected surveillance system and test its effectiveness. The user specifies the characteristics of the surveillance system and the basing locations, if they are preselected. Cloud cover data can be entered with preselected ground sites. Target satellites included four sets of representative satellite systems. The user selects the targets, defines the mission time, and determines the percentage of each target system which must be tracked. Preliminary results indicate that an air based surveillance system with three dispersed telescope platforms could outperform a system of five candidate GEODSS sites. (Author)