2019/07/29 by D. M. Palmer, David M. Palmer, Rebecca M. Holmes +4 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #FOS: Electrical engineering #FOS: Physical sciences #GNSS positioning and interference #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Signal Processing (eess.SP) #Space Satellite Systems and Control #astro-ph.IM #eess.SP #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1907.12499
SmallSat 2019 (The 33rd Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites)
arxiv created 2019/07/29 · openalex publication_date 2019/07/29 · arxiv updated 2019/07/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Space Object Identification is one of the cornerstones of Space Traffic Control and a requirement for successful operation of a spacecraft. ELROI, the Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier, is a new concept that can provide a self-powered satellite identification beacon in a package the size of a thick postage stamp. Its small size, low cost, and fully autonomous operation make it usable by all space objects, including CubeSats and inert debris objects. The beacon's signal is received on the ground using a small telescope equipped with a photon-counting detector which can unambiguously determine the satellite identification number during a single pass overhead. Additional information can be included in the signal to aid in anomaly diagnosis and resolution, further improving spaceflight reliability and safety. The first ELROI unit in orbit was launched December, 2018 as a payload on the student CubeSat NMTSat. We are now searching for the identification signal.