OmniSSA


The Omnidirectional Space Situational Awareness (OmniSSA) system investigates synthetic All-Sky image construction using super-resolution and frame-stacking techniques to engage in detection, tracking, and state estimation research efforts. It is composed of several wide field-of-view camera 'modules,' each of which take simultaneous images. The images are fused in post-processing to simultaneously improve resolution and photometric intensity of the resulting 'synthetic' images. Our use of astrophotography cameras and wide field-of-view lenses allow excellent sky coverage and great camera sensitivity.

The image above shows such an image (before fusion) with a 103 degree corner-to-corner field of view. This image has been dark frame and background subtracted. Hundreds of catalog stars are identified, and two space objects (COSMOS 2084 and a H-2A R/B) can be seen crossing on the top of the image. Two aircraft are also seen in the bottom left.

The OmniSSA hardware is fabricated, integrated, and in the final stages of being tested before collection campaigns begin. A short series of step-by-step images (reverse chronological order) are also shown here.