MIT Lincoln Laboratory is open.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is open.

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An image of comet C/1999 S4 LINEAR taken by one of the LINEAR telescopes shows a characteristic well-developed tail.

Advanced Capabilities and Technologies

We research and develop technology for advanced satellite systems that are used to monitor the activity of objects in space and to perform remote sensing of Earth. Our work focuses on the development of instruments, hardware, and algorithms that provide both space-based and ground-based systems with novel capabilities for detecting, tracking, and imaging objects in space and on Earth. We also manage the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, which uses ground-based electro-optical sensors at a field site in Socorro, New Mexico, to find and catalog near-Earth objects, such as asteroids and comets. Since 1997, the LINEAR program has discovered 50% of the known asteroids in our solar system.

For installation aboard a launch vehicle, a space telescope using technology developed for DISCIT will fold up into the compact shape seen at the left, but will expand its segmented sparse subapertures, right, once deployed.

integrated systems

Deployable In-Space Coherent Imaging Telescope

Technologies enabling the deployment of an expandable telescope from a small spacecraft could pave the way for the development of other payloads for small satellites.

The SST awaits nightfall to be tasked with scanning space from its location atop the Atom Site, a high-altitude observation point in New Mexico that provides a view of the sky that is virtually untouched by light pollution.

space situational awareness

Space Surveillance Telescope

A unique curved focal surface enables a highly sensitive telescope capable of surveying broad swaths of deep space to detect the faintest objects in the night sky.

Each BEACON instrument has two cylinders outfitted with copper electrodes. As the cylinders spin synchronously, the electrical field produces a signal between the electrodes; from this signal, the strength and direction of the E-field are computed.

advanced devices

BEACON

Researchers are creating a balloon-carried instrument for predicting the likelihood of lightning in a storm cloud.

Spacex launches the Transporter-5 mission carrying 59 payloads, including Lincoln Laboratory’s Agile MicroSat. (Photo: SpaceX)

Tiny satellite tests autonomy in space

Nov 10

A small satelitte photographed against a white background. About , about 10 cm X 10 cm X 36 cm in size, it consists of a small solar panel array, connected to the satellite bus standing upright, topped with a golden cube.

Pathfinder satellite paves way for constellation of tropical-storm observers

Jun 30

Six small satllite buses (about size of loaf of bread) are photographed against a white background.

In the Media

Tiny satellites could help warn of the next big hurricane

Jun 27

Wired

Satellite remote sensing in disaster relief: FY23 HADR Technical Investment Program(9.12 MB)

Jun 13

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report MIT-LIN-TIP-197

Discovering the smallest observed near-earth objects with the space surveillance telescope

Feb 26

Icarus, Vol. 325, 2019, pp. 105-114.

Shining light on thermophysical Near-Earth Asteroid modeling efforts

Jan 22

1st NEO and Debris Detection Conf., 22-24 January 2019.

More Publications

The ASDF is used by many groups at the Laboratory to test prototype autonomous systems.

Autonomous Systems Development Facility

At the Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex in Westford, Massachusetts, Lincoln Laboratory operates three high-power radar systems.

Lincoln Space Surveillance Complex

More Facilities