Space Situational Awareness (SSA)

The “Space Situational Awareness (SSA)” team assists safe satellite operations and a sustainable use of space by observing resident space objects using sensors from in-house telescope stations and those from partner organizations, by analyzing and processing the acquired data, and by maintaining an up-to-date catalogue of resident space objects. The derived data products are used for research as well as for safe satellite operations, e.g., for collision avoidance. In addition to operating the international data exchange platform SMARTnet™, the SSA team participates in German delegations within organizations such as ECSS, ISO or IADC, to lobby for a sustainable use of space.

Research Areas

SMARTnet (Small Aperture Robotic Telescope Network)

  • Telescope
  • Tele-robotic operation
  • Network
  • Cooperation

BACARDI (Backbone Catalogue of Relational Debris Information)

  • Object correlation
  • Orbit determination,  orbit prediction, data fusion
  • Indexing
  • Collision prediction and avoidance
  • Re-entry predictions
  • Manoever detection
  • High Performance Computing

Radar


  • Analyses of TIRA-data (Tracking and Imaging Radar in Wachtberg)
  • Weilheim Tracking Radar