In-situ observations of resident space objects with the CHEOPS space telescope
Abstract
The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (CHEOPS) is a partnership between the European Space Agency and Switzerland with important contributions by 10 additional ESA member States. It is the first S-class mission in the ESA Science Programme. CHEOPS has been flying on a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit since December 2019, collecting millions of short-exposure images in the visible domain to study exoplanet properties. A small yet increasing fraction of CHEOPS images show linear trails caused by resident space objects crossing the instrument field of view. To characterize the population of satellites and orbital debris observed by CHEOPS, all and every science images acquired over the past 3 years have been scanned with a Hough transform algorithm to identify the characteristic linear features that these objects cause on the images. Thousands of trails have been detected. This statistically significant sample shows interesting trends and features such as an increased occurrence rate over the past years as well as the fingerprint of the Starlink constellation. The cross-matching of individual trails with catalogued objects is underway as we aim to measure their distance at the time of observation and deduce the apparent magnitude of the detected objects. As space agencies and private companies are developing new space-based surveillance and tracking activities to catalogue and characterize the distribution of small debris, the CHEOPS experience is timely and relevant. With the first CHEOPS mission extension currently running until the end of 2026, and a possible second extension until the end of 2029, the longer time coverage will make our dataset even more valuable to the community, especially for characterizing objects with recurrent crossings.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2411.18326,
title = {In-situ observations of resident space objects with the CHEOPS space telescope},
author = {Nicolas Billot and Stephan Hellmich and Willy Benz and Andrea Fortier and David Ehrenreich and Christopher Broeg and Alexis Heitzmann and Anja Bekkelien and Alexis Brandeker and Yann Alibert and Roi Alonso and Tamas Bárczy and David Barrado Navascues and Susana C. C. Barros and Wolfgang Baumjohann and Federico Biondi and Luca Borsato and Andrew Collier Cameron and Carlos Corral van Damme and Alexandre C. M. Correia and Szilard Csizmadia and Patricio E. Cubillos and Melvyn B. Davies and Magali Deleuil and Adrien Deline and Olivier D. S. Demangeon and Brice-Olivier Demory and Aliz Derekas and Billy Edwards and Jo Ann Egger and Anders Erikson and Luca Fossati and Malcolm Fridlund and Davide Gandolfi and Kosmas Gazeas and Michaël Gillon and Manuel Güdel and Maximilian N. Günther and Ch. Helling and Kate G. Isaak and Laszlo L. Kiss and Judith Korth and Kristine W. F. Lam and Jacques Laskar and Alain Lecavelier des Etangs and Monika Lendl and Demetrio Magrin and Pierre F. L. Maxted and Marko Mecina and Bruno Merín and Christoph Mordasini and Valerio Nascimbeni and Göran Olofsson and Roland Ottensamer and Isabella Pagano and Enric Pallé and Gisbert Peter and Daniele Piazza and Giampaolo Piotto and Don Pollacco and Didier Queloz and Roberto Ragazzoni and Nicola Rando and Heike Rauer and Ignasi Ribas and Martin Rieder and Nuno C. Santos and Gaetano Scandariato and Damien Ségransan and Attila E. Simon and Alexis M. S. Smith and Sérgio G. Sousa and Manu Stalport and Sophia Sulis and Gyula M. Szabó and Stéphane Udry and Bernd Ulmer and Solène Ulmer-Moll and Valérie Van Grootel and Julia Venturini and Eva Villaver and Nicholas A. Walton and Thomas G. Wilson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.18326},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
9 pages, 8 figures, Special Issue of the Journal of Space Safety Engineering