the ssa-neo segment, aug 2011, d. koschny, g. drolshagen - page 1 the near-earth object segment of...

The SSA-NEO Segment, Aug 2011, D. Koschny, G. Drolshagen -

The Near-Earth Object Segment of ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme

(SSA-NEO)

Overview

D. Koschny, G. Drolshagen

The SSA-NEO segment shall be aware of the positions and physical properties of near-Earth objects (NEOs). It shall assess their impact probabilities, effects, and possible

mitigation activities.

© David A. Hardy/www.astroart.org


What is Space Situational Awareness?

The objective of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) initiative is to support the European independent utilisation of and access to space for research or services, through providing timely and quality data, information, services and knowledge regarding the environment, the threats and the sustainable exploitation of the outer space.

From the SSA Programme Declaration, ESA/C/SSA-PP(2008)2

We will provide a service to inform the customers (governments, disaster management, scientists, the public/press…) about the situation of natural and artificial objects in space. This will allow us to better protect our satellites and our planet.


The European SSA Programme

Three ‘segments’:

• Survey and Tracking (of satellites and space debris)

• Space Weather

• Near-Earth objects

ISS Station from 400 km,VSW Munich, 80 cm aperture

<- Proton and electron fluxes (NOAA)

http://www.free-space.at/gaehrken/7iss15c.gif



• Preparatory phase (2009 – 2012) approved by ESA’s Council meeting on ministerial level in Nov 2008 (50 MEUR)as an optional programme

• After confirmation: Nominalphase (4 years/7 year slots)

• Possibly co-funded by EC






• Network of sensors (ground- and space-based)

• Data centres

• Common data policy andstandardization





Main requirements

The SSA-NEO segment shall provide information on the impact probability and/or miss distances of NEOs including associated uncertainties. To do this properly, it shall assess impact analyses, results, and perform its own impact risk assessments

Classify the risk of a NEO impact and issue warnings if the risk is higher than the background risk

Carancas crater, Peru, 2007


System overview

ObservatoriesData Centre

Politicalentities

Other users

near-Earth objects andother asteroids

Minor PlanetCenter (MPC)

Mea

sure

men

ts

General information

Warnings

SSA-NEOSegment

Jet PropulsionLaboratory


Current activities

Setting up precursor services:• Observations with ESA’s 1-m telescope – follow-up and

survey

• NEODyS/Pisa

• Physical properties database from DLR/EARN => ESA’s Planetary Database

• Priority list of the Spaceguard Central Node

Related studies• Demonstrator for autonomous follow-up

• Polarimetry camera

• Update population model

• Mitigation effects/deflection mission

• Manned missions: Studies in Concurrent Design Facility, more studies on environment to come

Defining the full system to fulfil the requirements

• Data centre (as in precursor service)

• “Wide survey”

• Preparation of deflection mission (starting with Don Quijote)


Potential for collaboration

The asteroid impact threat is an international issue:

• Political discussions, e.g. Mission Planning and Operations Group workshop after this meeting

• Common mission studies – e.g. ‘Deep Impact’ + ‘Asteroid orbiter’ ≈ Don Quijote

• Supporting MPC?

• Data exchange formats, standards (CCSDS)?

• (Image) data archive?

• Science mission collaboration (MarcoPolo-R, OSIRIS-REx, Hayabusa-2…)

• More? Discuss!

Acknowledgement

• Thanks to the Secure World Foundation who provided travel funds.


Backup slides


Observations

Observations with Optical Ground Station on Tenerife ongoing – 2 nights every 2 weeks, plus one week in 2009, one week in 2010

Focus on:

• Follow-up from ‘NEOCP’ = NEO confirmation page, i.e. list of recently discovered potential NEOs

• Follow-up from ‘priority list’ of Spaceguard Main Node, NEOs in need of further observations

• Photometrical measurements – absolute and relative

• Testing survey

Survey statistics including observations by Kresken/Busch in September 2009, as of 29 Apr 2011 (~100 h) – see to the right

Other tests – e.g. astrometric accuracy as a function of pixel scale

From: http://vmo.estec.esa.int/totas


Observations continued

Survey – planning and processing pipeline by M. Busch, data validation with support of amateur astronomers, mainly from the German Starkenburg Sternwarte Heppenheim

Support to La Sagra Sky Survey is being discussed

Discovered by R. Kresken + M. Busch, Sep 2009


NEODyS = NEO Dynamical Site

http://newton.dm.unipi.it/neodys/

Duplicate system at Univ. Pisa (I) and Univ. Valladolid (E), A. Milani, F. Bertini, G. Sansanturio, O. Arratia and more

computing impact risks for NEOs on a regular basis

Keeps risk list and orbital info on all NEOs including uncertainties

Daily updates

Cross-validation of results with JPL SENTRY system for objects with Palermo Scale > -2

We are in the process of negotiating a Service-Level Agreement with them for the continued maintenance of the systems


European Asteroid Research Node (EARN)

http://earn.dlr.de/

Database of physical properties of NEOs

Maintained by Gerhard Hahn, DLR Berlin

We are in the process of setting up a Service-Level Agreement with him to in the future maintain the SSA-NEO database (a searchable SQL database) via a dedicated interface

http://earn.dlr.de/


Planetary Database (PDB)

http://pdb.estec.esa.int

SQL database developed by ASTOS, Germany, for ESA, to store information on solar system objects

Initially intended to support mission design

Now adapted for use in the SSA-NEO segment


Spaceguard Central Node priority list

http://spaceguard.iasf-roma.inaf.it/SSystem/SSystem.html

Maintained by INAF/Rome, Giovanni Valsecci, Germano d’Abramo

Lists NEOs in need of follow-up even after they disappeared from the NEO Confirmation Page

Foreseen to be moved to ESRIN during the contract in place for setting up the precursor service (“SN-III”)

Service-Level Agreement under negotiation for maintenance

http://spaceguard.iasf-roma.inaf.it/SSystem/SSystem.html

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