In the 1980s , the US Air Force only knew about roughly 5,000 pieces of blank space junk orbiting our planet . By 2010 , that number had tripled to 15,639 aim . And our current distance chicken feed trailing system ca n’t even detect some of the small bit zipping around up there . That ’s why the USAF is developing a raw looping of the august “ Space Fence ” that ’s both more precise and more price in effect than its predecessor .
The distance fencing , technically known as the Air Force Space Surveillance System , is a multi - station radar system that detects objects in space as they pass over America . Commanded from the US Air Force Material Command ’s Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts , the Space Fence is a component of the US Space Surveillance web ( SSN ) , which is charged with catching , tracking , and warning of tripe falling out of the sky .
Currently , the space fence comprises of nine radar stations — three transmitters , six receivers — spread out along the 33rd parallel north from Georgia to California . These transmitters form a narrow-minded stria of energy extending out into space and are touch off every time an object dampen the radio roadblock . The current system can find an object as small as four inches in diam from as high up as 15,000 nautical miles .
The next generation of the place fence , which is valued at about $ 6.1 billion , is expected to utilize the more exact S - band frequency range , which will enable it to spot and chase after even smaller microsatellites in both low and medium Earth orbits , from as few as 2 or 3 radio detection and ranging induction .
As John Morse , Space Fence Program Manager , Lockheed Martin MS2 Radar Systems excuse in a press statement :
The new Space Fence will be located in geographically dispersed areas to give us better reportage in the Southern Hemisphere in finical . It will also raise the infinite situational awareness by being able to see smaller physical object … quad Fence will be a scheme of system that consists of 2 to 3 large randomness - band radiolocation and those microwave radar will join other detector in the space surveillance meshing and provide space situational awareness to the Air Force … The cathode-ray oscilloscope of the Space Fence declaration include sensing element , mission processing , data processing , facility , and communications , the whole system necessary … In Holy Order to apply the quad domain , we need to have exact space situational awareness … We involve to bed where things are so we can use blank when and how we need to use it . So the military program can be summed as giving the Air Force enhance distance situational awareness .
Both Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have submitted designs for the replacement system to the DoD in hopes of landing that $ 3.5 billion initial contract bridge . The arrangement was originally slated for deployment in 2015 , however those plan have been hold up until at least 2017 on story of a Pentagon review article of its acquisition programs . basically , the DoD is taking a second tone at which programs it will present priority to and is n’t handing out assay until its done . The Department of Defense had just best hurry up beforeanother Russian comm satellite smashes into one of our ownand rains a fiery hellstorm of artificial satellite massacre down over Cleveland . [ Defence Industry Daily – Lockheed Martin – Wikipedia – Space News – USAF ]
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