Derrick Henry
NorthStar Earth & Space Systems is collaborating with Riverside Research to enhance U.S. space situational awareness capabilities under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Space-WATCH program.
The partnership seeks to improve the ability of the U.S. to detect space threats caused by unexpected events or anomalies, NorthStar said Monday.
Through the collaborative effort, Riverside Research will use deep learning methods on new observations and state vectors generated from NorthStar’s Wide Field of View SSA collection.
The offering will deliver advanced SSA tools to detect, track and characterize resident space object maneuvers and space object separation events.
The capability will work to improve space navigation and advance space flight safety. It is containerized and cloud-based for secure integration into existing software systems and scalable to accommodate emerging sensors and proliferated space architectures.
The partner companies’ combined expertise to detect and track space objects will drive the mission to “achieving assured space domain awareness and to addressing the growing challenges of space congestion at speed and scale,” Tim Waltz, vice president of sensors and systems at Riverside Research, said in a statement.
He added that advanced decision-making tools will ensure space security.
Under the partnership, NorthStar and Riverside Research are also developing an automated solution to provide users with detailed object characterization and actionable domain awareness and insights.
