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Development Of A Remotely Operated Autonomous Satellite Tracking System, Michael E. Graff

Theses and Dissertations

AFIT is currently developing a capability to remotely and autonomously track LEO satellites using commercial telescopes. Currently, the system is capable of open-loop tracking based on Two-Line Element sets (TLEs) downloaded from NORAD’s space object catalog. The ability to actively track using a closed-loop control system would allow tracking of satellites which deviated from the published TLEs along with providing some information about the object’s new orbital elements. To accomplish closed-loop tracking, the object is imaged by a digital camera connected to a wide field-of-view (WFOV) spotting scope. Software was developed to provide azimuth and elevation inputs in order to …