NASA's Orbital Debris Optical Program: ES-MCAT Updated and Upgraded

The 1.3m ES-MCAT telescope (or MCAT for short) now has a proven capability for observing objects from Low- Earth Orbit (LEO) out to Geosynchronous (GEO) orbit, and the ability to run all systems autonomously. A GEO survey, the initial focus for MCAT, will commence in late 2019 to map out the current state of the GEO population as input for the ORbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM 4.x). This survey will statistically sample the GEO belt (0 to ~15 deg orbital inclinations) to detect both known and unknown targets. If a break-up occurs, additional surveys of the break-up field can be followed for discovery and investigations of daughter debris fragments from the parent satellite. Discovery can be accomplished by tracking orbits near to and including the parent object’s orbit. Targeted observations of debris can be taken with a suite of broadband filters for characterizing individual objects by ratetracking their known or calculated orbital elements (Two-Line Element sets, TLEs). Several modifications and upgrades have been made to the instrumentation and systems originally installed in 2015 and are reported here. In 2018, MCAT’s primary mirror was recoated with a high-end protected, enhanced silver by the ZeCoat Corporation. The CCD chip was replaced in the Spectral Instruments camera with a broad-band antireflective coated chip. The automated weather systems have been modified from the original system, removing some weather sensors and installing replacements that are better suited to Ascension’s weather and environment. A new 2.5-m ObservaDome replaced the Astrohaven dome on the nearby tower platform that will house an auxiliary 0.4-meter telescope. Finally, in 2019, the Observatory Control System was upgraded to 2.0 which includes additional flexibility for automating data collection and reduction. With these updates completed, MCAT is now well on track to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2019 for its survey, rate-track, and TLE tracking capabilities.