TECHNICAL DIVISIONS
Aerospace – Division 9
The Aerospace Division develops sensors, technologies, and systems that help to strengthen national security. Focus areas are space control, persistent surveillance, and environmental monitoring. The division's work includes development of system concepts, hardware and software system demonstrations, and technology transfer to industry. The primary technology focuses are the application of new components and algorithms to enable sensors with greatly enhanced capabilities and the development of exploitation systems to extract actionable information from sensors and networks on operational timelines.
| Groups |
Group 91—Space Control Systems
The Space Control Systems Group develops technologies and techniques for space control and space surveillance missions. The group's principal efforts include (1) development of the unique, large, ground-based, Space Surveillance Telescope to provide a wide-area search capability for microsatellites in deep space; (2) development of advanced satellite payloads in support of the space surveillance mission; (3) operation of an extensive observational program utilizing optical space surveillance technology to search for and discover near-Earth asteroids at the Laboratory's field site near Socorro, New Mexico, (which has discovered more than 50% of the known asteroids in our solar system); and (4) advanced applications focused on data fusion and information extraction. The group's current research activities span a broad range of topics, including novel visible and infrared optical systems, optical interferometry, computational imaging and analytics, advanced image processing algorithms and techniques, and evaluation of technologies for new space systems.
Group 92—Aerospace Sensor Technology
The Aerospace Sensor Technology Group creates novel sensors and data exploitation techniques for the aerospace community. Current areas of emphasis include advanced wideband radar systems for space-object imaging, distributed sensing systems for deep-space surveillance, and techniques for the joint control and exploitation of multimodality sensors. A major ongoing effort in the group is the development of a wideband radar system for timely on-demand imaging of small satellites in orbits ranging from low-Earth to geosynchronous (40,000 km range). The new radar will operate in the 92–100 GHz band and will achieve an order of magnitude improvement in inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) image quality. The group is also involved in the development of several other advanced radar systems, including the Space Fence, a large phased-array radar system for space surveillance. Other areas of research include development of techniques for fusion and exploitation of optical and ISAR data, multistatic radar, and interferometric ISAR. The group is also responsible for technology development and upgrades to the Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex, an operational test bed for radar technology and space situational awareness comprising the Haystack, Haystack Auxiliary, and Millstone radars in Westford, Massachusetts.
Group 93—Space Situational Awareness
There are currently more than 20,000 objects in Earth's orbit, ranging in importance from operational satellites to orbital debris. In order to monitor this large population, the Space Situational Awareness Group develops algorithms, techniques, and operational concepts to track and characterize these objects. The group operates the Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex (LSSC), comprising the Millstone deep-space satellite tracking radar and the Haystack and Haystack Auxiliary wideband imaging radars. All of these radars are remotely controlled from the Lexington Space Situational Awareness Center (LSSAC), which serves as a central mission-support center and data-fusion node for the LSSC and other ground- and space-based space surveillance sensors. Together, the LSSC and LSSAC serve as an operational test bed for space situational awareness technologies and provide access to a rich set of radar and optical data. The group's current research and development efforts focus on problems such as tracking and identification of newly launched satellites, discrimination of closely spaced satellites in geosynchronous clusters, automated radar image exploitation, close-approach monitoring and collision warning, applications of multisensor data fusion, and decision support to enhance space protection. The group is also developing a net-centric, service-oriented architecture that networks all of these capabilities together in an integrated real-time information system.
Group 95—Space Systems Analysis
The Space Systems Analysis Group identifies and evaluates threats to the U.S. use of space for military, intelligence, civil, and commercial purposes. The group works with organizations in the U.S. space community to develop and critically examine concepts for reducing vulnerabilities to these identified threats. This work involves understanding the strengths and weaknesses of U.S. space-related systems, including the sensors and networks used to detect, track, and characterize objects in space and the infrastructure used to control and operate satellites. An important element of the group's work entails detailed modeling of the sensor, guidance, communication, and propulsion systems that make up a satellite. The group's activities further include formulating new ideas for space systems and on-orbit operations and assessment of the timelines, architectures, and decision-making processes for maintaining awareness of the space domain. The group seeks researchers from the physical sciences, including physics, mathematics, and chemistry, as well as from a wide range of applied disciplines (including electrical, computer, mechanical, chemical, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering).
Group 97—Sensor Technology and System Applications
The Sensor Technology and System Applications Group develops environmental monitoring electro-optical infrared sensor systems for detecting and tracking natural and man-made phenomena. The group's activities include the extraction of target and feature information from airborne and spaceborne hyperspectral imagery; system support of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) environmental satellites in performance analysis and improvement of existing sensors and products; architecture definition and sensor development support for the next-generation NOAA satellite systems; and chemical- and biological-agent detection sensor and system development. Work includes electro-optical and infrared sensor design, system and architecture analysis, signal processing, data analysis, and algorithm development.
Group 99—Advanced Electro-optical Systems
The Advanced Electro-optical Systems Group's expertise is in the area of electro-optical imaging systems, image processing, video exploitation, and low-power optical communications systems. The group leverages this core expertise to architect, prototype, and build imaging hardware and software systems in support of aerospace surveillance, wide-area persistent surveillance, and focused surveillance programs for the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and NASA sponsors.
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