Slashdot Mirror
Prototype Space Fence Now Tracking Actual Orbital Debris
coondoggie writes "Lockheed Martin says the prototype system it is developing to track all manner of space debris is now tracking actual orbiting space objects. The Space Fence prototype includes new ground-based radars and other technologies to enhance the way the U.S. detects, tracks, measures and catalogs orbiting objects and space debris with improved accuracy, better timeliness and increased surveillance coverage. 'Space Fence will detect, track and catalog over 200,000 orbiting objects and help transform space situational awareness from being reactive to predictive. The Air Force will have more time to anticipate events potentially impacting space assets and missions. Our net-centric design approach allows Space Fence to be easily integrated into the broader U.S. Space Surveillance Network of sensors already operated by the Air Force.'"
The Earth can yell "get off my lawn" and have it mean something.
Seems like a better name would be "SpaceWatch" or something. The word "Fence" implies it can block debris . When I think of tracking I typically don't think of fences.
Still, sounds like a neat project.
Is Megamaid
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
MPAA ruled out their first choice, so they use the closest synonyms they could find:
Sky->Space, Net->Fence.
to be part of the "axis of EEEEEEEEEvile!".
But will duh "fence" pertect us frum duh ivayshun of duh space terrists? (I'm lookin at y'all, Marvin).
BOO!
Regrets,
Floyd De Buttehead, Arizona Trailer Park Number 43647856698696860922977659009, Lower Paranoid Buttfuque, AZ, USA.
p.s.: who said USA = "Asses of Evil" ?
. . . another man calls, "my spy satellite" . . .
As in:
"Hey, you destroyed my spy satellite!"
"Oh, sorry, it looked like space debris to me. I was just trying to tidy up a bit."
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I know it is not NASA, and likely designed largely to protect expensive corporate resources. But still, we send fewer and fewer people up, but we watch every washer and paint fleck that is up there more. Saddens me.
Silence is a state of mime.
This "fence" system, like some earlier fence systems, is called that because it's a bistatic (or multistatic) radar. The transmitters and receivers are at different locations, and the transmitted beam is not steered. Targets are located by time differences between what's received at multiple receivers. The previous system had three transmitter sites and six receiver sites, spread across the US.
Fence systems are somewhat specialized, but a good way to find everything that crosses the fence volume. Once the RF gear is in place, it's mostly a processing problem. Unlike regular radars, there's no useful information without correlating multiple receiving stations.
Point it at the Southern border.
Katamari Damacy.
Better yet, tired of the same old Slashdot stories?:
Roll the Slashdot URL into one big ball with javascript from Kathack.
Enjoy.
Yours In Cuba,
Kilgore Trout, C.I.O.
That summary ignores we already have that!
It only sounds interesting if you A) Don't know that we've had that capability since NORAD tracked Sputnik with similar projects done by every major space administration on Earth, or B) Didn't bother reading the infrastructure proposed.
And now, the troll that has a joke for, "Holy Junk!"
"Yeah...it was the numbers that were irrational, not the murderous cult of vegetarians...." -- Hippasus of Metapontum
With as much as even the summary hammers the term over and over, it sounds like these guys yelling.
Actually, it's the current, working system. Space Weather has a nice link to a receiver that lets you listen to the echos from stuff flying through the fence http://spaceweatherradio.com/ Or you can do it your self....If you're within several hundred miles of Lake Kickapoo, Texas, and have a receiver that can hear 216.98 MHz, you can hear the echos of things flying through the fence... Big fun if you're a radio nerd :-)
Doesn't NASA already do this?
We will soon reach a point where not having such predictive capabilities will doom any launched vehicle to a debris collision. Its interesting to think that such a program provides so much space superiority over other nations.
Here is the LM YouTube video regarding Space Fence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SJdN90vT04
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
That is wrong. Its called a "fence" because it is a wide field-of-view system that will track objects similarly to the way you stated. However, the reason for the "fence" description is wrong. The bistatic nature of the sytem is due to the high power requirements of the transmitter and the lack of need for multiple transmitters. Think of the sunlit moon, you have one sun but everyone who is not obscured by clouds can see the moon at night (and sometimes during the day) during a full or partially lit moon. The same goes for a radar such as the space fence - one transmitter can "light up" the debris while many receivers give the best chance of "catching" a signal from a randomly oriented piece of debris.
Right now there are close to 500,000 pieces of debris larger than 1 cm in low-earth orbit. The space fence will try to catch 200,000 of those. The data processing problem is huge - you have to determine that the piece of space junk that crossed the fence is the same that crossed the fence on the next pass. When you have 200-500k pieces, that means that there are at least four objects per square degree - the moon is about half a degree so there is always (on average) one piece of space debris in front of the moon. This is not an easy problem!
Yes, but the reason why it's of interest isn't actually explained in the summary. I realise now, however, that I said, "Didn't." when I meant, "Did;" so, fair enough, but I stand behind the title of this reply.
"Yeah...it was the numbers that were irrational, not the murderous cult of vegetarians...." -- Hippasus of Metapontum
So... the headline here is, "thing does what it's supposed to do"?