Jane Edwards
SRI International will further develop its space object tracking technology under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity’s Space Debris Identification and Tracking program.
The nonprofit research organization said Wednesday it is working on its Space Object Tracking and Evaluation via Radar Integration and Analysis project in collaboration with Leidos and SCOUT Space through IARPA’s SINTRA program, which seeks to extend the use of tracking capabilities in geostationary orbit.
SRI was one of the four vendors selected by IARPA to work on the SINTRA program.
SRI’s SOTERIA project intends to track tiny space debris through plasma wakes and scattered radio wave signatures using ground-based radars and detectors aboard spacecraft.
“Space debris poses a serious threat to our continuing use of space across all domains of science, communications, commerce, and intelligence,” said Lin van Nieuwstadt, a senior engineer at SRI and principal investigator for SOTERIA.
“With the SOTERIA project, we hope to extend reliable tracking of objects in space down to previously unobservable scales, thereby preserving humankind’s ability to utilize the final frontier,” van Nieuwstadt added.
Under the SINTRA initiative, SRI is collecting and analyzing data and performing project management and algorithm-development tracking.
Leidos is conducting plasma modeling and SCOUT Space is developing spaceborne sensors.
