Paper detail

The Fabra-ROA Telescope at Montsec (TFRM): A Fully Robotic Wide-field Telescope for Space Surveillance and Tracking

Since the beginning of the Space Age optical sensors have been one of the main instruments for positioning and tracking known space objects. Nowadays, the unrelenting growth of man-made objects together with the overcrowding of the useful satellite orbits, and the real space debris and NEO hazards, has made necessary to carry out surveys of the space looking for uncatalogued objects. Optical telescopes play a key role in the Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) as a primary Space Situational Awareness element and, it is known, that the best instrument for this task is a fully robotic wide-field telescope with a minimum aperture of 40cm. The Baker-Nunn Cameras (BNCs) were produced by the Smithsonian Institution during the late 50s as an optical tracking system for artificial satellites. These wide-field telescopes of 50cm of aperture were manufactured by Perkin- Elmer (optics) and Boller & Chivens (mechanics) with the highest quality specifications. The TFRM is a fully robotic refurbished BNC that exploits the excellent mechanical and optical original design to obtain an equatorial telescope with a useful 4.4°x4.4° CCD field of view. TFRM is therefore a European asset very well suited for SST (satellites and space debris) and NEO observations. Moreover, its control system allows tracking of all kinds of orbits, including LEOs.