MODEST observations of space debris at geosynchronous orbit Original Research Article

Results will be presented from a new NASA optical survey of objects at geosynchronous orbit (GEO). The goal is to determine the total population of debris objects at GEO to as small a limiting size as possible. This survey uses the University of Michiganʹs 0.6/0.9 m Schmidt telescope Michigan Orbital Debris Survey Telescope (MODEST). Located at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, the system is equipped with a scanning CCD with a field of view of 1.3° × 1.3°, and can detect objects smaller than 20 cm diameter at GEO. Each night the telescope scans a strip of sky 100° long × 1.3° high. Up to eight independent detections are made of each candidate GEO object in a 5 min time span, yielding measurements of brightness, position, and angular motion. Since February 2001, an extensive series of observations of the GEO regime has been carried out with this system, revealing a considerable population of objects smaller than 1 m in diameter.