EQUO - Equatorial Italian Observatory at The Broglio Space Center for Space Debris Monitoring

摘要

An equatorial observatory is under development in the framework of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) - Sapienza University of Rome Agreement for scientific cooperation at the Broglio Space Center (BSC) in Malindi (Kenya). The need to improve observation capabilities in monitoring and cataloguing space debris is constantly growing, due to the continuous increase of operative satellites in the GEO and LEO regions. ASI and the Department of Astronautics, Electrical and Energetics Engineering (DIAEE) of Sapienza University of Rome, established an equatorial observatory settled at the Broglio Space Center in Kenya (EQUO - EQUatorial Observatory), to improve their space debris observation potential. The observatory was developed by Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab). It is composed by two different observation sites: i) EQUO-On Ground (EQUO-OG) is installed inside the base camp of BSC with a wide Field of View (FOV) of about 9 degrees squared for astrometry purpose; ii) EQUO Off Shore (EQUO-OS) will be installed on the Santa Rita off-shore platform of BSC for photometric measurements and it is currently under development. The paper describes the installation and the operations of the fully remote controlled EQUO-OG for orbital debris observation. The results of the off-shore observatory test installation campaign on the Santa Rita platform and the firsts remote operations of the whole system are shown.