Since 2001 Institute of Astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences is working out space astrometric mission devoted
to the basic problems of modern astronomy - establishment of inertial space co-ordinates frame and measurement of
parallaxes of any bright star inside our Galaxy. To do this it was necessary to make astrometric instrument with unprecedent
precision of few microseconds of arc. We managed to design such instrument, and now we are ready to move
up to the Stage "B" of the project and plan the launch of the mission at 2012-2014. Designed device allows measuring
directions to the astronomical sources, and it can also be used for telescope pointing to target objects in the space as
well as on the Earth. If optical receiver/transmitter telescope is paced on the geostationary orbit, the laser beam from 1-meter telescope will illuminate a patch on the Earth's surface about 30 meters. To provide stable connection between
space and Earth's telescopes it is necessary to have pointing accuracy for both telescopes not worse then 0,015". It is
obvious that propagation of light beam through Earth's atmosphere must be very carefully pre-calculated. Besides
refraction that changes beam direction, the transmitted from Earth laser beam will be widened by atmosphere
turbulence. Widened to diameter 5" beam has to be 500 times more powerful then undistorted one, so study of possible
ways of fine handling of the passed through atmosphere beams is valuable for creation of laser communications
systems.
A technical design of the OSIRIS two-based optical space interferometer is based on the carbon-fiber technology and on the newest Russian achievements in laser metrology and light sensors. The whole instrument was designed as a payload to the Russian Segment of the ISS and it consists of two blokes that will be brought to the ISS by transport spacecraft Progress and installed there by astronauts. Short-live devices of the OSIRIS interferometer - light sensor and metrological laser - are replaceable for fast repairs in the open space conditions. Due to the carbon- fiber strongly constructed case and to the absence of reserved devices the total mass of the OSIRIS interferometer will not exceed 250 kg. The two-based interferometer OSIRIS consists of four off-axis telescopes will have its own guide for precision pointing to the target stars. The whole instrument will use its own independent to the ISS pointing and tracking systems. It will be mounted to the RS ISS by magnetic controlled suspension device. The OSIRIS Project was admitted to the Russian National Space Program as a payload to the RS ISS at the promoted stage, and it might be launched at 2002-2003 years.
The conception of ground-based optical observations of 'Space Debris'--pieces is described. This conception is based on the experience of photographic and TV observations of geostationary satellites and some theoretical investigations that have been carried out at the Institute for astronomy of Russian Academy of Sciences. The following problems are considered in this report: positional and photometric observations of Space Debris in GEO; the optimization of optoelectronic observations; the advantages of base-line optical observations. The secular evolution of Space Debris particles on high-latitude orbits due to solar radiation pressure is also described.
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