The optical orbital debris mesurement program at NASA and AMOS

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has been making optical observations of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) orbital debris environment. NASA operates two telescopes located near Cloudcroft, NM that obtain these observations. The 3.0 meter Liquid Mirror Telescope (LMT) is used for LEO observations and the 0.32 meter Charged Coupled Device (CCD) Debris Telescope (CDT) is used for GEO observations. The optical observations are being used to help characterize the debris environment in LEO and GEO and to assist in the modeling projections generated by NASA. NASA is also collaborating with the Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomp uting (AMOS), which is located at the summit of Haleakala on the island of Maui. There are three main observational programs at AMOS. There is an imaging program utilizing the 3.67 m telescope adaptive optics system to image objects that have had anomalous events or breakups. There is a spectroscopic program utilizing spectrographs on the 3.67 m and 1.6 m telescopes to determine surface materials. There is also a program utilizing instrumentation on the 3.67 m telescope to determine the albedo of objects based upon simultaneous visible and thermal IR photometry. AMOS is also obtaining statistical observations of the GEO debris environment supporting NASA and the IADC activities using the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) camera on the 1.2 meter telescope. In addition, a renovated Baker-Nunn telescope will be available for observations in the Summer of 2002. Results from these observation programs will be presented, as well as future plans.