Calculating Statistical Orbit Distributions Using GEO Optical Observations with the Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST)

NASA's Orbital Debris measurements program has a goal to characterize the small debris environment in the geosynchronous Earth-orbit (GEO) region using optical telescopes ("small" refers to objects too small to catalog and track with current systems). Traditionally, observations of GEO and near-GEO objects involve following the object with the telescope long enough to obtain an orbit suitable for tracking purposes. Telescopes operating in survey mode, however, randomly observe objects that pass through their field of view. Typically, these short-arc observation are inadequate to obtain detailed orbits, but can be used to estimate approximate circular orbit elements (semimajor axis, inclination, and ascending node). From this information, it should be possible to make statistical inferences about the orbital distributions of the GEO population bright enough to be observed by the system. The Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST) has been making such statistical surveys of the GEO region for four years. During that time, the telescope has made enough observations in enough areas of the GEO belt to have had nearly complete coverage. That means that almost all objects in all possible orbits in the GEO and near- GEO region had a non-zero chance of being observed. Some regions (such as those near zero inclination) have had good coverage, while others are poorly covered. Nevertheless, it is possible to remove these statistical biases and reconstruct the orbit populations within the limits of sampling error. In this paper, these statistical techniques and assumptions are described, and the techniques are applied to the current MODEST data set to arrive at our best estimate of the GEO orbit population distribution

Michigan Orbital DEbris Survey Telescope Observations of the Geosynchronous Orbital Debris Environment. Observing Years: 2007-2009

NASA uses the Michigan Orbital DEbris Survey Telescope (MODEST), the University of Michigan's 0.61-m aperture Curtis-Schmidt telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, to help characterize the debris environment in geosynchronous orbit; this began in February 2001 and continues to the present day. Detected objects that are found to be on the U.S. Space Surveillance Network cataloged objects list are termed correlated targets (CTs), while those not found on the list are called uncorrelated targets (UCTs). This Johnson Space Center report provides details of observational and data-reduction processes for the entire MODEST dataset acquired in calendar years (CYs) 2007, 2008, and 2009. Specifically, this report describes the collection and analysis of 36 nights of data collected in CY 2007, 43 nights of data collected in CY 2008, and 43 nights of data collected in CY 2009. MODEST is equipped with a 2048 x 2048-pixel charged coupled device camera with a 1.3 by 1.3 deg field of view. This system is capable of detecting objects fainter than 18th magnitude (R filter) using a 5-s integration. This corresponds to a 20-cm diameter, 0.175-albedo object at 36,000 km altitude assuming a diffuse Lambertian phase function. The average number of detections each night over all 3 years was 26. The percentage of this number that represented the UCT population ranged from 34% to 18%, depending on the observing strategy and the field center location. Due to the short orbital arc over which observations are made, the eccentricity of the object s orbit is extremely difficult to measure accurately. Therefore, a circular orbit was assumed when calculating the orbital elements. A comparison of the measured inclination (INC), right ascension of ascending node (RAAN), and mean motion to the quantities for CTs from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network shows acceptable errors. This analysis lends credibility to the determination of the UCT orbital distributions. Figure 1 shows the size distribution of 3,143 objects detected in the data processed for CYs 2007, 2008, and 2009. The actual peak of the absolute magnitude distribution for the functional correlated targets is 10th magnitude, whereas the peak was 11th magnitude in 2002 2003 and 10th magnitude for 2004-2006. An absolute magnitude of 10.5 corresponds to objects with average diameters of 6.3 m, assuming an albedo of 0.175 and a diffuse Lambertian phase function. This result generally agrees with the known sizes of intact satellites. The absolute magnitude distribution for the UCTs is broad, but starts to roll off near 25 cm diameter or 17.5 magnitude. This roll off in the distribution reflects the detection capability of MODEST, not the true nature of the population. The true population is believed to continue at the same slope through fainter magnitudes based on comparisons with the LEO break-up law

Comparison of Orbital Parameters for GEO Debris Predicted by LEGEND and Observed by MODEST: Can Sources of Orbital Debris be Identified?

Since 2002 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has carried out an optical survey of the debris environment in the geosynchronous Earth-orbit (GEO) region with the Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST) in Chile. The survey coverage has been similar for 4 of the 5 years allowing us to follow the orbital evolution of Correlated Targets (CTs), both controlled and un-controlled objects, and Un-Correlated Targets (UCTs). Under gravitational perturbations the distributions of uncontrolled objects, both CTs and UCTs, in GEO orbits will evolve in predictable patterns, particularly evident in the inclination and right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) distributions. There are several clusters (others have used a "cloud" nomenclature) in observed distributions that show evolution from year to year in their inclination and ascending node elements. However, when MODEST is in survey mode (field-of-view approx.1.3deg) it provides only short 5-8 minute orbital arcs which can only be fit under the assumption of a circular orbit approximation (ACO) to determine the orbital parameters. These ACO elements are useful only in a statistical sense as dedicated observing runs would be required to obtain sufficient orbital coverage to determine a set of accurate orbital elements and then to follow their evolution. Identification of the source(s) for these "clusters of UCTs" would be advantageous to the overall definition of the GEO orbital debris environment. This paper will set out to determine if the ACO elements can be used to in a statistical sense to identify the source of the "clustering of UCTs" roughly centered on an inclination of 12deg and a RAAN of 345deg. The breakup of the Titan 3C-4 transtage on February 21, 1992 has been modeled using NASA s LEGEND (LEO-to-GEO Environment Debris) code to generate a GEO debris cloud. Breakup fragments are created based on the NASA Standard Breakup Model (including fragment size, area-to-mass (A/M), and delta-V distributions). Once fragments are created, they are propagated forward in time with a subroutine GEOPROP. Perturbations included in GEOPROP are those due to solar/lunar gravity, radiation pressure, and major geopotential terms. The question to be addressed: are the UCTs detected by MODEST in this inclination/RAAN region related to the Titan 3C-4 breakup? Discussion will include the observational biases in attempting to detect a specific, uncontrolled target during given observing session. These restrictions include: (1) the length of the observing session which is 8 hours or less at any given date or declination; (2) the assumption of ACO elements for detected object when the breakup model predicts debris with non-zero eccentricities; (3) the size and illumination or brightness of the debris predicted by the model and the telescope/sky limiting magnitude

An Attempt to Observe Debris from the Breakup of a Titan 3C-4 Transtage

In February 2007 dedicated observations were made of the orbital space predicted to contain debris from the breakup of the Titan 3C-4 transtage back on February 21, 1992. These observations were carried out on the Michigan Orbital DEbris Survey Telescope (MODEST) in Chile with its 1.3deg field of view. The search region or orbital space (inclination and right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) was predicted using NASA#s LEGEND (LEO-to-GEO Environment Debris) code to generate a Titan debris cloud. Breakup fragments are created based on the NASA Standard Breakup Model (including fragment size, area-to-mass (A/M), and delta-V distributions). Once fragments are created, they are propagated forward in time with a subroutine GEOPROP. Perturbations included in GEOPROP are those due to solar/lunar gravity, radiation pressure, and major geopotential terms. Barker, et. al, (AMOS Conference Proceedings, 2006, pp. 596-604) used similar LEGEND predictions to correlate survey observations made by MODEST (February 2002) and found several possible night-to-night correlations in the limited survey dataset. One conc lusion of the survey search was to dedicate a MODEST run to observing a GEO region predicted to contain debris fragments and actual Titan debris objects (SSN 25000, 25001 and 30000). Such a dedicated run was undertaken with MODEST between February 17 and 23, 2007 (UT dates). MODEST#s limiting magnitude of 18.0 (S\N approx.10) corresponds to a size of 22cm assuming a diffuse Lambertian albedo of 0.2. However, based on observed break-up data, we expect most debris fragments to be smaller than 22cm which implies a need to increase the effective sensitivity of MODEST for smaller objects. MODEST#s limiting size can be lowered by increasing the exposure time (20 instead of 5 seconds) and applying special image processing. The special processing combines individual CCD images to detect faint objects that are invisible on a single CCD image. Sub-images are cropped from six consecutive CCD images with pixel shifts between images being consistent with the predicted movement of a Titan object. A median image of all the sub-images is then created leaving only those objects with the proper Titan motion. Limiting the median image in this manner brings the needed computer time to process all images taken on one night down to about 50 hours of CPU time

Energy, strength, and alpha width measurements of Ec.m.=1323E_{\rm{c.m.}} = 1323 and 14871487 keV resonances in 15^{15}N(α,γ\alpha,\gamma)19^{19}F

The $^{15}$N($\alpha,\gamma$)$^{19}$F reaction produces $^{19}$F in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, where the low energy tails of two resonances at $E_{\rm{c.m.}} = 1323 \pm 2$ and $1487 \pm 1.7$ keV are estimated to contribute about $30\%$ of the total reaction rate in these environments. However, recent measurements have shown discrepancies in the energies, the strengths, and the corresponding alpha widths of these two resonances, resulting in an increase in the systematic uncertainty of the extrapolated cross section to helium burning energies. With this motivation, we have undertaken new measurements of the $^{15}$N$(\alpha,\gamma)^{19}$F at the University of Notre Dame Nuclear Science Laboratory. The setup consisted of an alpha particle beam impinged on a solid Ti$^{15}$N target with gamma-ray spectroscopy accomplished using a high purity germanium detector. Using the Doppler corrected gamma-ray energies, we confirmed the lower resonance energy to be $1321.6 \pm 0.6$ keV and found a value for the higher one of $1479.4 \pm 0.6$ keV that is more consistent with those found from previous elastic scattering studies. We found that the resonance strengths for both were consistent with most values found in the literature, but a larger alpha width has been recommended for the $E_{\rm{c.m.}} = 1487$ keV resonance. The larger alpha width suggests a reaction rate increase of about $15\%$ at temperatures $T < 0.1$ GK relevant to low mass AGB stars. The impact of the increased reaction rate requires further investigations.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Manuscript submitted to Phys. Rev. C on March 21, 202

ORDEM 3.0 and MASTER-2009 Populations Comparison (with Preliminary SRM Slag Study)

No abstract availabl

Epitaxial Growth and Processing of Compound Semiconductors

Contains an introduction and reports on three research projects.MIT Lincoln LaboratoryU.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-96-1-0126National Science Foundation Grant DMR 94-00334Joint Services Electronics Progra

Geosynchronous Environment for ORDEM2008

The new version of the NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM2008) requires accurate populations as input template files to be used in the calculation of orbital debris fluxes on chosen spacecraft or within telescope/radar fields-of-view. Populations in ORDEM2008 are derived from a consortium of data and modeling. Geosynchronous (GEO) satellites and debris form a distinct ORDEM2008 population that is applied to the distinct analysis of GEO fluxes. Low Earth orbit (LEO) populations are derived by combining modeling results with ground-based data, primarily from radar systems and in-situ data. In contrast, the GEO region has not been as well observed. The distance between orbiting objects and ground-based instruments precludes the wide usage of radar as a means of observation. Instead, optical instruments dominate in the study of GEO. Of these, the NASA sponsored Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST) has provided 4 years of surveys of the region detecting cataloged objects (correlated targets) and non-cataloged objects (uncorrelated targets) to an estimated minimum size of 30 cm. This paper describes the methods of combining NASA launch database and satellite breakup and orbital propagation modeling with MODEST 2004-to-2006 uncorrelated target data to attain a GEO environment to 10 cm. Assuming that MODEST uncorrelated targets are breakup debris allows for the extension of the debris survey data to smaller sizes with the NASA Standard Breakup model. Each orbit within the total resulting GEO population is marked by a random argument of perigee and nearly constant mean motion, eccentricity, inclination, and node over the nearly 3 years of observation. Lack of published references of past breakups in GEO is mitigated by the orbital propagation of MODEST extended data to 1995 (the beginning epoch of ORDEM2008)