(U) Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS)

(The effects of any budget/program decisions made since the information was collected during 1997-98 are NOT reflected in the National Security Space Road Map (NSSRM).)

Overview: (U)
(U) The Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) is a major upgrade to the Air Force Maui Optical Station (AMOS).   AEOS is a 3.67 meter telescope scheduled for first light in 1997 with initial operational capability in FY99-00.  AEOS will have seven coude' rooms for various experiments, as well as conventional Cassegrain positions located on the mount itself.   Coude'  is French for elbow - meaning the light is "bent" from the telescope through a coude' path to the basement of the facility.   From the basement, the light is redirected to the appropriate lab for data collection, analysis, or experiments.  

Description: (U)
(U) The Advanced Electro-Optical System (AEOS) is a Congressionally-mandated program for the construction and integration at the Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS) on Mt. Haleakala.  The primary telescope mirror will have a 3.67 meter diameter, a clear aperture diameter of  3.63 meters, and a 50 cm diameter central obscuration.  The optical figure of the primary mirror will be maintained with active elements deriving their force commands from a wave-front sensor, which can be made to work in concert with an atmospheric path sensing and correcting adaptive optical subsystem.  Two interchangeable secondary mirrors will allow the telescope to have a full field of view of either 0.3 mrad or 1 mrad.

(U) The telescope would offer about five hours per day operation at a location where other (though less capable) sensors already exist (i.e., AEOS can see dimmer objects).  It should achieve approximately 10 cm image resolution at near earth (NE) ranges, and Mission Payload Analysis (MPA) support for deep space (DS); but does not resolve DS objects.  AEOS offers increased low earth orbit (LEO) capacity because of its long wave infra-red (LWIR) sensor and meets the LEO resolution requirement out to greater ranges.  There will be approximately one order of magnitude increase in the ability to track smaller objects, though the narrow field of view results in very limited search capability.  As an additional sensor, it would proportionately increase total track rate capacity.  There is little impact on gap time because the site already has space surveillance network sensors.  The increased light collection allows metric observations over sections of an asteroid's orbit that could not be accessed by less sensitive sensors, thereby improving the element set accuracy for already discovered asteroids.   The AEOS program does not deal with improving the processing.  It was assumed that Maui High Performance Computer Center (MHPCC) processing of images will increase the timeliness of images.  

User Impact: (U)
(U) Space Object Identification through satellite imaging and non-imaging techniques.

Programmatics: (U)
(U) Programmed.
	(U) IOC: 10/1998 (1QFY1999).
	(U) FOC: 10/2003 (1QFY2004).

(U) Organizations and Funding:
	(U) USSPACECOM: Funding Source.

Related Initiatives: (U)
(U) AMOS, HI-CLASS, SBIRS-Low

Related Requirements: (U)
(U) None.

Related Categories: (U)
(U) Dedicated Sensors, Electro-Optical

Road Map Placements: (U)
(U) SPACE CONTROL: S.S. NETWORK.

Lead Office: (U)
(U) Air Force.

Date of Information: (U)
01 February 1997

(The effects of any budget/program decisions made since the information was collected during 1997-98 are NOT reflected in the National Security Space Road Map (NSSRM).)