Publications
Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Program (LINEAR)
Summary
Summary
The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program has applied electro-optical technology developed for Air Force Space Surveillance applications to the problem of discovering near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and comets. This application is natural due to the commonality between the surveillance of the sky for man-made satellites and the search for near-Earth...
The Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) Program
Summary
Summary
Lincoln Laboratory has been developing electro-optical space-surveillance technology to detect, characterize, and catalog satellites for more than forty years. Recent advances in highly sensitive, large-format charge-coupled devices (CCDs) allow this technology to be applied to detecting and cataloging asteroids, including near-Earth objects (NEOs). When equipped with a new Lincoln Laboratory...
Air Force planetary defense system: initial field test results
Summary
Summary
Over the past several years, the Air Force has been developing new devices and technology for the detection and tracking of earth orbiting satellites. This technology has been targeted to provide an upgraded capability for an operational space surveillance system called GEODSS. Currently, a number of GEODSS systems are deployed...
Optimal searches for asteroids
Summary
Summary
Optimal searches for a fixed object are discussed and the rigorous analytical results of discrete search theory are presented. They show that the totally optimal, the uniformly optimal, the locally optimal, and the fastest searches are identical under not too restrictive assumptions. The mathematical formalism is illustrated by an Earth-approaching...
A new asteroid observation and search technique
Summary
Summary
A prototype observatory was constructed near Socorro, New Mexico to search for and observe earth-approaching asteroids. Hardware modifications were made so that the discrimination of artificial satellites at an angular speed of 15 arcsec/sec can be used to observe minor planets at an angular speed of 0.01 arcsec/sec. Assuming no...