Heimdall – Sensor Tasking for SSA

Named after the Norse god who keeps watch for disaster from his home near the Rainbow Bridge, Heimdall is a system developed by Orbit Logic with university research partners to schedule observations of known and uncharacterized objects and to search for new objects using ground and space observatories. Heimdall addresses the need for automated, optimized space situational awareness (SSA) sensor tasking driven by improved space object catalog maintenance requirements.

Orbit Logic, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of Texas at Austin developed a baseline SSA sensor tasking capability using STK Scheduler, then added a Track Prioritization Component leveraging Random Finite Sets (RFS) in a FISST-based framework for predicted Information Gain and Probability of Detection, plus an SSA-specific Figure-of-Merit (FOM) for optimized sensor tasking. A web-based interface provides a multi-user experience for distributed teams involved in SSA sensor tasking. Heimdall has been deployed operationally for a government customer and was demonstrated under an AFRL contract for a Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS) SSA sensor tasking scenario, covering custody observations of operational satellites in the unclassified NORAD catalog, repeated observations of high-priority GEO targets, GEO belt sky-survey observations, and searches for new objects with excess sensor time. Heimdall also formed the basis for Heimdall Web, developed and demonstrated under a separate AFRL contract to let government agencies receive routine observation data from commercial and other non-traditional SSA sensor tasking assets.