The first Italian observatory for space debris observation

Abstract

In October 2006, the Italian Space Agency, in the framework of a programme that involves many Italian groups working on different issues of the space debris field, committed to GAUSS (Group of Astrodynamics of the University of Rome “La Sapienza”) the task to design and manufacture an optical observatory completely dedicated to space debris monitoring.
\nThe observatory is designed to be semi-transportable. It will host three optical tubes, with di-ameters of 30 cm, 40 cm and 50 cm, equipped with two Charge Coupled Device (CCD) cam-eras and moved by robotic mounts.
\nThe 40 cm tube is a Cassegrain-like configuration, modified to get a short focal length (focal ratio: f/1.8) thus permitting a wide field of view and a good stability on the mount, so that fast LEO objects tracking is allowed. GAUSS has accomplished the design of the optical tube.
\nThe 30 cm tube is a Baker-Schmidt (f/2.8), while the 50 cm, still in the procurement phase, will be a Newtonian (f/4)
\nOne CCD camera is based on a 4096x4096, 9 μm pixels sensor (54 mm diagonal) and will be used for surveys and photometry and astrometry measures, while the other, still in the pro-curement phase, will have greater quantum efficiency and a lower number of smaller pixels and will be used for more accurate astrometry but even for accurate photometry.
\nThe robotic mounts permit full autonomous tracking mode and remote control.
\nGAUSS has also designed the dome and the paper shows the solutions adopted in order to achieve transportability and remote control.
\nAs the observatory is completely autonomous, it can collect a large amount of data; therefore, a software package has been developed for image processing automation and correlation of the detected objects with the catalogue.
\nThe paper provides an overview of the observatory design, highlighting its features and capa-bilities in determining the orbits of the detected objects.