US-12627772-B2 - Systems and methods for generating a plurality of celestial images utilizing a plurality of satellites

US12627772B2US 12627772 B2US12627772 B2US 12627772B2US-12627772-B2

Abstract

A system includes a plurality of satellites in orbit around a celestial body in a plurality of orbital planes. Each satellite includes an imaging device having a field of view (FOV) to capture an image of a sky that includes celestial image features of resident space object (RSO), stars, and/or planets. The satellite processor is configured to receive image data from sensors in the imaging device, to increase a positional detection accuracy of the celestial image features by defocusing imaging optics of the imaging device, to capture image data in a volume of the sky as the FOV of the imaging device on each satellite moves in an orbital plane, and generate by a centralized computer at least 1,000 celestial image features using the image data transmitted from each of the satellites.

Inventors

Stewart Bain
Narendra Gollu
Peter Klimas
Jean-Claude Leclerc
Daniel O'Connell
Frederic Pelletier
Naron Phou

Assignees

NorthStar Earth & Space Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20241012

Claims (20)

1 . A system, comprising: at least one imaging satellite in orbit around a celestial body; wherein the at least one imaging satellite comprises: at least one imaging device comprising: at least one imaging optical arrangement and a plurality of sensors defining a pixel array of a plurality of pixels to detect light through the at least one imaging optical arrangement; wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is configured to have a field of view (FOV) to capture a plurality of satellite-specific images in a portion of a sky; wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is defocused to increase a positional detection accuracy of at least one celestial image feature detected in the portion of the sky, by spreading an area of each of the at least one celestial image feature over a predefined number of pixels in the pixel array; wherein the at least one imaging device is configured to perform, during a surveil of the portion of the sky, a continuous capture, at a predefined image acquisition rate, of the plurality of satellite-specific images of the portion of the sky to generate satellite-specific image data; wherein the continuous capture of the plurality of satellite-specific images during the surveil is independent of an expected presence of any of a plurality of celestial objects in the portion of the sky; and at least one processor, configured to use the satellite-specific image data, acquired by the continuous capture of the plurality of satellite-specific images, independent of the expected presence of any of the plurality of celestial objects, during the surveil of the portion of the sky, to: capture, based at least in part on the area of each of the at least one celestial image feature over the predefined number of pixels in the pixel array, a plurality of temporal behaviors of a plurality of celestial image features based on a frame-to-frame feature overlap of at least one particular celestial image feature that appears in an image subset of successive satellite-specific images from the plurality of satellite-specific images; wherein at least one particular temporal behavior of the at least one particular celestial image feature is based at least in part on a corresponding acquisition timestamp of each image and the predefined image acquisition rate; and perform one of: generate, based on the at least one particular temporal behavior of the at least one particular celestial image feature and resident space object (RSO) data from an RSO repository database, at least one identifier, identifying, in the image subset, one of: the at least one particular celestial image feature is representative of at least one new RSO, or the at least one particular celestial image feature is representative of at least one existing RSO in the RSO repository database; or identify that each celestial image feature in a particular image in the image subset corresponds to at least one other celestial object from the plurality of celestial objects to determine that the particular image within the image subset lacks any RSOs.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to update the RSO repository database with the at least one identifier and associated temporal behavior feature data when the at least one particular celestial image feature is determined to be representative of the at least one new RSO.
3 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one other celestial object from the plurality of celestial objects is a star, a planet, a natural celestial body, or any combination thereof.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the celestial body is Earth.
5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one particular celestial image feature comprises at least one streak representative of the at least one other celestial object, the at least one new RSO, the at least one existing RSO, or any combination thereof.
6 . The system according to claim 5 , wherein a length of the at least one streak is based on a velocity of the at least one other celestial object, the at least one new RSO, the at least one existing RSO, or any combination thereof.
7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein an optical axis of the FOV of each imaging satellite from the at least one imaging satellite is positioned at a predefined pointing angle with respect to a tangential component of a satellite orbital velocity of each imaging satellite.
8 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a central computing processing arrangement; wherein the central computing processing arrangement comprises the at least one processor of at least one centralized computer.
9 . The system according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one centralized computer is located in a base station.
10 . The system according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one processor of the at least one centralized computer is at least one particular satellite processor of an imaging satellite from the at least one imaging satellites.
11 . A method, comprising: instructing at least one imaging satellite in orbit around a celestial body; wherein the at least one imaging satellite comprises: at least one imaging device comprising: at least one imaging optical arrangement and a plurality of sensors defining a pixel array of plurality of pixels to detect light through the at least one imaging optical arrangement; wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is configured to have a field of view (FOV) to capture a plurality of satellite-specific images in a portion of a sky; wherein the at least one imaging optical arrangement is defocused to increase a positional detection accuracy of at least one celestial image feature detected in the portion of the sky, by spreading an area of each of the at least one celestial image feature over a predefined number of pixels in the pixel array; wherein the at least one imaging device is configured to perform, during a surveil of the portion of the sky, a continuous capture, at a predefined image acquisition rate, of the plurality of satellite-specific images of the portion of the sky to generate satellite-specific image data; wherein the continuous capture of the plurality of satellite-specific images during the surveil is independent of an expected presence of any of a plurality of celestial objects in the portion of the sky; and instructing at least one processor, configured to use the satellite-specific image data, acquired by the continuous capture of the plurality of satellite-specific images, independent of the expected presence of any of the plurality of celestial objects, during the surveil of the portion of the sky, to: capture, based at least in part on the area of each of the at least one celestial image feature over the predefined number of pixels in the pixel array, a plurality of temporal behaviors of a plurality of celestial image features based on a frame-to-frame feature overlap of at least one particular celestial image feature that appears in an image subset of successive satellite-specific images from the plurality of satellite-specific images; wherein at least one particular temporal behavior of the at least one particular celestial image feature is based at least in part on a corresponding acquisition timestamp of each image and the predefined image acquisition rate; and perform one of: generate, based on the at least one particular temporal behavior of the at least one particular celestial image feature and resident space object (RSO) data from an RSO repository database, at least one identifier, identifying, in the image subset, one of: the at least one particular celestial image feature is representative of at least one new RSO, or the at least one particular celestial image feature is representative of at least one existing RSO in the RSO repository database; or identify that each celestial image feature in a particular image in the image subset corresponds to at least one other celestial object from the plurality of celestial objects to determine that the particular image within the image subset lacks any RSOs.
12 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising updating, by the at least one processor, the RSO repository database with the at least one identifier and associated temporal behavior feature data when the at least one particular celestial image feature is determined to be representative of the at least one new RSO.
13 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the at least one other celestial object from the plurality of celestial objects is a star, a planet, a natural celestial body, or any combination thereof.
14 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the celestial body is Earth.
15 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the at least one particular celestial image feature comprises at least one streak representative of the at least one other celestial object, the at least one new RSO, the at least one existing RSO, or any combination thereof.
16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein a length of the at least one streak is based on a velocity of the at least one other celestial object, the at least one new RSO, the at least one existing RSO, or any combination thereof.
17 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein an optical axis of the FOV of each imaging satellite from the at least one imaging satellite is positioned at a predefined pointing angle with respect to a tangential component of a satellite orbital velocity of each imaging satellite.
18 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the instructing of the at least one processor comprises instructing of the at least one processor of a central computing processing arrangement; wherein the central computing processing arrangement comprises the at least one processor of at least one centralized computer.
19 . The method according to claim 18 , wherein the at least one centralized computer is located in a base station.
20 . The method according to claim 18 , wherein the at least one processor of the at least one centralized computer is at least one particular satellite processor of an imaging satellite from the at least one imaging satellites.

Description

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The field of the disclosure relates to astronomical imaging. More particularly, the field of the disclosure relates to system and method for generating a plurality of celestial image features from a plurality of images of a sky. BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE Satellites in orbit about the Earth may enable technologies such as inter-continental communication, precision navigation, weather forecasting, Earth imaging, and astronomical observations to name a few. However, with the number of these orbiting satellites rapidly approaching 10,000 satellites, these satellites may create space debris when decommissioned subjecting the other satellites in orbit to possible space debris collisions. Currently, there may be over 35,000 space debris objects greater than 10 cm and over 1,000,000 space debris objects between 1 cm and 10 cm. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES Some embodiments of the disclosure are herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of embodiments of the disclosure. In this regard, the description taken with the drawings makes apparent to those skilled in the art how embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced. FIGS. 1A-1B are schematic diagrams of a system in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIGS. 2A-2D are schematic diagrams of a satellite orbiting a celestial body with different orientations for imaging outer space in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 2E is a schematic diagram of a plurality of satellites and a plurality of resident space objects (RSO) in an orbit about a celestial body in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 2F is a schematic diagram of the plurality of resident space objects (RSO) in orbit about the celestial body and illuminated by the sun in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 2G is a schematic diagram illustrating locational representation object tracking in space in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a satellite with an imaging device that is imaging a plurality of RSOs in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of sensors in an imaging device in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a plurality of sensors in an imaging device in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an acquired image with celestial image features corresponding to imaged RSOs and stars in outer space in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 7 is schematic diagram of an imaging device on a satellite generating a plurality of images of RSOs in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 8 is schematic diagram of three imaging devices on three satellites respectively generating a plurality of images in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a computer-based method for generating a plurality of celestial image features from a plurality of images of a sky in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure; and FIG. 10 is a diagram of an exemplary satellite in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. SUMMARY In some embodiments, the present disclosure provides an exemplary technically improved computer-based system that includes a plurality of satellites in orbit around a celestial body in at least one orbital plane. Each satellite from the plurality of satellites may include: at least one satellite processor; a non-transitory satellite computer memory; a satellite communication circuitry; at least one imaging device including: at least one imaging optical arrangement and a plurality of sensors; where the at least one imaging optical arrangement may be configured to have a field of view (FOV) to capture an image of a sky; where the image of the sky captured by the at least one imaging device within the FOV may include: at least one celestial image feature that is representative of at least one of: at least one other celestial body or at least one other celestial body and at least one resident space object (RSO); where the plurality of sensors may be configured to define a plurality of pixels to detect light through the at least one imaging optical arrangement and to generate image data of the image within the FOV; where the at least one imaging optical arrangement is defocused with a preset defocusing parameter to increase a positional detection accuracy of the at least one celestial image feature by spreading an area of each of the at l