HR: 0830h
AN: P41B-0403    [PDF]
TI: Minor Body Surveyor: A Multi-Object, High Speed, Spectro-Photometer Space Mission System Employing Wide-Area Intelligent Change Detection
AU: * Kaplan, M L
EM: mkaplan@ball.com
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce St., Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Van Cleve, J E
EM: jvanclev@ball.com
AF: Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., 1600 Commerce St., Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Alcock, C
EM: alcock@hep.upenn.edu
AF: University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy 209 S. 33rd St., Philidelphia, PA 19104 United States
AB: Detection and characterization of the small bodies of the outer solar system presents unique challenges to terrestrial based sensing systems, principally the inverse 4th power decrease of reflected and thermal signals with target distance from the Sun. These limits are surpassed by new techniques [1,2,3] employing star-object occultation event sensing, which are capable of detecting sub-kilometer objects in the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud. This poster will present an instrument and space mission concept based on adaptations of the NASA Discovery Kepler program currently in development at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. Instrument technologies to enable this space science mission are being pursued and will be described. In particular, key attributes of an optimized payload include the ability to provide: 1) Coarse spectral resolution (using an objective spectrometer approach) 2) Wide FOV, simultaneous object monitoring (up to 150,000 stars employing select data regions within a large focal plane mosaic) 3) Fast temporal frame integration and readout architectures (10 to 50 msec for each monitored object) 4) Real-time, intelligent change detection processing (to limit raw data volumes) The Minor Body Surveyor combines the focal plane and processing technology elements into a densely packaged format to support general space mission issues of mass and power consumption, as well as telemetry resources. Mode flexibility is incorporated into the real-time processing elements to allow for either temporal (Occultations) or spatial (Moving targets) change detection. In addition, a basic image capture mode is provided for general pointing and field reference measurements. The overall space mission architecture is described as well. [1] M. E. Bailey. Can 'Invisible' Bodies be Observed in the Solar System. Nature, 259:290-+, January 1976. [2] T. S. Axelrod, C. Alcock, K. H. Cook, and H.-S. Park. A Direct Census of the Oort Cloud with a Robotic Telescope. In ASP Conf. Ser. 34: Robotic Telescopes in the 1990s, pages 171-181, 1992. [3] F. Roques and M. Moncuquet. A Detection Method for Small Kuiper Belt Objects: The Search for Stellar Occultations. Icarus, 147:530-544, October 2000.
DE: 6000 PLANETOLOGY: COMETS AND SMALL BODIES
DE: 6035 Orbital and rotational dynamics
DE: 6094 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6200 PLANETOLOGY: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS (New field)
DE: 6297 Instruments and techniques
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting