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WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.– The Antares rocket that will be launched on Tuesday to replenish the International Space Station will carry a camera sensor with a unique missile defense task: to start collecting data that could help the United States detect and defend itself more quickly against missiles hypersonic.
The prototype infrared payload, dubbed “PIRPL,” was developed by Northrop Grumman and the Missile Defense Agency to see how low-earth orbit satellites, or LEOs, could be used to help detect hypersonic missiles.
“So the tracking layers – when it comes to missile warning, missile tracking, those kinds of defense-related missions – these are usually done in higher orbits like geostationary orbit, with larger sensors on longer life satellites. Sometimes we call them national property, ”said an official with the Space Development Agency who informed reporters of the condition that they should not be named.
But geostationary satellites operate at an altitude of 35,000 kilometers from the Earth’s surface, making it more difficult to quickly discern the weak infrared signatures of hypersonic missiles from all the infrared noise, or clutter, generated by Earth. A satellite in low earth orbit is operating at around 1,000 kilometers, “which gives me a ton of better detection capability,” the official said.
“An advanced maneuvering hypersonic missile is not brilliant and that is why we have to innovate,” the official said.
When a target of interest is identified, the collected images must be subjected to a decluttering process to refine this weak signature.
SDA and MDA have been working to have a network of low Earth orbit satellites that could speed up this detection.
“We have tough threats out there these days. If we can show that we can perform these missions in a lower Earth orbit, we can get much closer to the source and they look a lot brighter, ”the official said.
But satellites cannot do the job alone. In order to quickly spot the thermal signature of a hypersonic missile, they need to know the existing signatures of the atmosphere, clouds, land and water as they appear in this low earth orbit.
“But we don’t have this empirical data,” the official said.
The PIRPL will be mounted on a panel from the Cygnus spacecraft mounted on top of Tuesday’s Antares rocket launch, and once in orbit, will begin collecting near-simultaneous short- and medium-wave infrared imaging data through a wheel. fast moving filters that will allow us to understand: “What the atmosphere, clouds, earth’s surface, land and ocean look like at different times of the day and night, from this type of sensor in low earth orbit ‘”to build these data points, the official said.
The PIRPL will also be used to help MDA better define the capabilities that the future network of low-earth orbit tracking satellites will need, the agency said in a statement to Defense 1.
“It is imperative that we have the ability to look at the hot Earth and choose targets in this scene,” the agency said in a statement. The prototype infrared payload will contribute to MDA’s development of the payload for the hypersonic and ballistic tracking space sensor, which is underway for an in-orbit demonstration using two prototype space vehicles in 2023. These space vehicles will demonstrate the sensitivity and unique fire -controlling the quality of service performance necessary to support the hypersonic destruction chain.
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