Ken Washington: Lockheed Builds Ground-Based Tech to Capture Orbital Images

Lockheed Martin has designed a ground-based system that aims to collect images of objects near geosynchronous orbit by using three 1-meter telescopes, Defense News reported Tuesday.

Aaron Mehta writes that the Space Object Tracking platform is designed with a Lockheed-made software, which is meant to operate through remote control and can capture space objects as small as 50 centimeters.

“Each telescope is looking at a different angle, so you have to adjust for that angle if you want to get an image constructed out of all three telescopes,” said Ken Washington, Lockheed STAR Lab’s vice president, according to Defense News.

“By coupling them with fiber it allows you to work with images from all three telescopes with the precision required,” Washington added, according to Mehta’s article.

Mehta reports that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency uses Lockheed’s SPOT technology for the Galileo astronomical imaging project.

Lockheed is competing with other firms to provide technology for the Air Force‘s Space Fence project and the Air Force Research Lab-run RASTER program.