Robotic observation pipeline for small bodies in the solar system based on open-source software and commercially available telescope hardware

The observation of small bodies in the Space Environment is an ongoing important task in astronomy. While nowadays new objects are mostly detected in larger sky surveys, several follow-up observations are usually needed for each object to improve the accuracy of orbit determination. In particular objects orbiting close to Earth, so called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are of special concern as a small but not negligible fraction of them can have a non-zero impact probability with Earth. Additionally, the observation of manmade space debris and tracking of satellites falls in the same class measurements. Telescopes for these follow-up observations are mainly in a aperture class between 1 m down to approximately 25 cm. These telescopes are often hosted by amateur observatories or dedicated companies like 6ROADS specialized on this type of observation. With upcoming new NEO search campaigns by very wide field of view telescopes, like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, NASA’s NEO surveyor space mission and ESA’s Flyeye telescopes, the number of NEO discoveries will increase dramatically. This will require an increasing number of useful telescopes for follow-up observations at different geographical locations. While well-equipped amateur astronomers often host instruments which might be capable of creating useful measurements, both observation planning and scheduling, and also analysis are still a major challenge for many observers. In this work we present a fully robotic planning, scheduling and observation pipeline that extends the widely used open-source cross-platform software KStars/Ekos for Instrument Neutral Distributed Interface (INDI) devices. The method consists of algorithms which automatically select NEO candidates with priority according to ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC). It then analyses detectable objects (based on limiting magnitudes, geographical position, and time) with preliminary ephemeris from the Minor Planet Center (MPC). Optimal observing slots during the night are calculated and scheduled. Immediately before the measurement the accurate position of the minor body is recalculated and finally the images are taken. Besides the detailed description of all components, we will show a complete robotic hard- and software solution based on our methods.TS-R acknowledges funding from the NEO-MAPP project (H2020-EU-2-1-6/870377). This work was (partially) funded by the Spanish MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” by the “European Union” through grant RTI2018-095076-B-C21, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”) through grant CEX2019-000918-M

Observational evaluation of event cameras performance in optical space surveillance

Event-based dynamic vision sensor (DVS) cameras possess a unique feature of outputting only sparse and asynchronous brightness changes rather than the conventional image sensor measurement of average intensity level during a fixed exposure time. This new technology opens a new window of opportunities for SST, especially for survey observations, where users are mostly interested in detecting objects moving within the telescope's field of view. In this work we present a comparison between a regular global-shutter CMOS camera (QHY174-GPS) and several DVS-based cameras - specifically, DVS, DAVIS and ATIS cameras. The measurements include new sensors, so far uncharacterized for space surveillance, specifically the first back illuminated DAVIS and a higher sensitivity DVS. The sensors were observationally tested during stellar observing runs with varying telescope tracking speed to simulate SST targets on different orbits, using identical optics and under the same weather conditions. Observations included daytime sky targets with high sky brightness and low object contrast. The DVS noise levels, minimum detectable object magnitudes and maximum object speeds were quantitatively assessed. The potential of existing event-based sensors is evaluated and future upgrades to EBS designs to fully utilize this technology in SST are discussed

Optical observations of the BepiColombo spacecraft as a proxy for a potential threatening asteroid

We present the results of our ground-based astrometric observation campaign of BepiColombo during its Earth fly-by on 2020 April 10. The observational circumstances induced by the fly-by geometry made this event an excellent proxy for a close fly-by or an imminent impact of a natural body with a diameter of a few meters, with the added benefit of having a ground-truth orbit (from radio tracking) to compare with our purely optical orbit determination.The work of TSR was carried out through grant APOSTD/2019/046 by Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). This work was supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) through grant RTI2018-095076-B-C21 (MINECO/FEDER, UE)