2025 AMOS Conference
By: Cindy Schumacher
The 2025 Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, presented by Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) September 16-19 in Maui, Hawaii at the Marriott Beach Resort Wailea, was reported by many to be the best ever in this annual event, with collaboration emerging as a central theme. The top scientific conference in the nation devoted to Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) hosted 1,097 in-person attendees and 216 participating virtually, representing a total of 29 countries. Keynote speaker General B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force, headlined the three-day program that brought together policymakers and experts from the private sector, academia, the military, and government agencies. Technical sessions this year covered the topics of Astrodynamics; Atmospherics/Space Weather; Cislunar SSA; Conjunction/RPO; Machine Learning for SSA Applications; Satellite Characterization; SDA Systems & Instrumentation; Space-Based Assets; Space Debris; and Space Domain Awareness.
In her conference-welcome remarks, Leslie Wilkins, MEDB President and CEO, said, “Since MEDB assumed stewardship in 2006, AMOS has evolved into a premier global forum for experts and international partners, all committed to advancing space sustainability. AMOS is where technical depth meets strategic policy, forging collaboration across sectors and diverse stakeholders, and facilitating discussions that are vital for the future of space operations.”
The AMOS Conference program included daily keynote speakers, policy forums, featured presentations, technical oral and poster sessions, exhibits, technical short courses and networking receptions. Both in-person and livestream attendees had access to a virtual platform to facilitate networking and collaboration before, during and after the conference. The Call for Papers early in the year attracted over 300 abstracts from 27 countries resulting in 164 papers being presented at AMOS 2025 as oral or poster presentations. The technical committee with conference co-chairs Paul Kervin and Daron Nishimoto and twenty session chairs helped to assemble this year’s program. The AMOS Conference also included an EMER-GEN Program for young professionals and a Space Exploration Day for Maui County middle-school students.
Technical papers were eligible for publication in a special edition of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) Journal of Astronautical Sciences as well as a Best Paper and Presentation Award. There was also a Best Student Paper Award (see winners and abstracts below). In addition to the technical sessions, the AMOS Conference featured commercial sponsors showcasing new technologies and services. There was also virtual access to posters and networking rooms.
KEYNOTES & AMOS SSA POLICY FORUMS
Each morning featured the AMOS Policy Forum, a collaboration with Secure World Foundation, that brought together the developers and implementers of SSA capabilities and the architects of SSA policy to discuss a space landscape that is rapidly evolving.
DAY 1 KEYNOTE
General Saltzman delivered the opening keynote of the conference. Saltzman praised initiatives like the SDA Tools Application and Processing (TAP) Lab and the Apollo Accelerator for fostering innovation and rapid capability development. However, he also delivered a stark warning: “America’s ability to track threats in space is dangerously outdated for an era where adversaries can launch surprise attacks on U.S. satellites.”
The general’s comments underscore growing Pentagon concerns about what military officials call space domain awareness, that is, the comprehensive tracking and understanding of all objects and activities in Earth’s orbit. This capability, which encompasses monitoring operational satellites, debris, and potential threats, has become critical as space transforms from a largely benign environment into a contested war fighting domain. Saltzman’s message also called for deeper collaboration with the private sector.
Saltzman said, “We cannot be satisfied if it takes us hours to detect on-orbit activity, and we definitely cannot be satisfied if full characterization of on-orbit events takes weeks and months. The longer it takes to update the catalog, the more problematic the issue, the less domain awareness we have. The Maui complex has been a gem of the space community for decades, and is one that the US Space Force does not take for granted.”
Saltzman’s urgency reflects the rapidly changing nature of the space environment in which the number of active satellites has grown dramatically. Meanwhile, China and Russia continue to develop and test weapons capable of destroying or disabling satellites, creating new categories of threats that existing tracking systems weren’t designed to handle.
DAY 1 AMOS POLICY FORUM
International Military SDA Sharing
Moderated by Victoria Samson, Chief Director, Space Security and Stability, Secure World Foundation
Panelists:
• Group Captain Nicholas Bewley, Deputy Head Capability – Operations, Royal Air Force
• Barbara Golf, Strategic Advisor for Pivot SDA, USSF/SSC
• Group Captain Rex Harrison, Director Space Domain Awareness, Defense Australia
• Lieutenant Colonel Amandeep Singh, Officer Commanding, Space Domain Awareness, The Indian Army, Ministry of Defence
The keynote was followed by the first of three AMOS Policy Forums. The panel discussion, moderated by Victoria Samson of Secure World Foundation, brought together senior defense representatives from the UK, US, Australia, and India to explore collaborative approaches to SDA.
Panelists emphasized the importance of multinational cooperation over competition, highlighting the need for interoperable systems, standardized data formats, and trust-building through joint exercises and agreements.
“The game is the collaboration, not the competition,” said Lieutenant Colonel Amandeep Singh, Officer Commanding, Space Domain Awareness, The Indian Army, Ministry of Defence.
Key themes of this panel included the integration of commercial capabilities, the challenges of classified data exchange, and the evolving role of alliances like NATO, the Quad, and AUKUS. The discussion underscored that while technical progress is accelerating, policy, security, and resourcing hurdles remain, particularly in managing the pace of innovation and ensuring resilience in the face of cyber threats. Looking ahead to 2030, panelists envisioned a more integrated, collaborative SDA environment, but cautioned that code sharing, security tagging, and operational alignment will require sustained effort and innovation.
DAY 2 KEYNOTE
Aarti Holla-Maini, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) provided a recorded presentation and followed up with live Q&A with the in-person audience. She emphasized the urgent need for global cooperation and multilateral governance to ensure the long-term sustainability of outer space.
“UNOOSA is first and foremost secretariat to COPUOS, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,” said Holla-Maini. “The office is also a capacity builder. We help member states deepen their knowledge and understanding around complex issues, all the way from rights and obligations under space law to current important topics such as SSA, STC, and more generally other space sustainability issues.”
She pointed out that while industry expertise is vital, decision-making must remain member state–driven to build trust and legitimacy. Through initiatives like the UN Space Bridge and Space Sustainability Days, UNOOSA has successfully fostered dialogue between governments and industry, leading to the creation of an expert group on SSA.
“Space sustainability is one hell of a global challenge. We need your help,” Holla-Maini stressed. She called on industry to actively engage with national delegations and support UNOOSA’s efforts, noting the office’s limited resources despite its expansive mandate.
DAY 2 AMOS POLICY FORUM
US-China Space Safety Information Sharing: Exploring Need and Possibilities
Moderated by Ian Christensen, Senior Director, Private Sector Programs, Secure World Foundation
Panelists:
• Kristin Burke (virtual), Senior Space and Counterspace Researcher, China Aerospace Studies Institute
• Siamak Hesar, Founder & CEO, Kayhan Space
• Josef Koller, Head of Space Safety and Sustainability, Amazon Kuiper
• Audrey Schaffer, Vice President of Strategy and Policy, Slingshot Aerospace
• Zhang Peng (pre-recorded), Director of Solutions, Galaxy Space, Ltd.
Christenson opened with the comment, “As operations in the space environment become more complex, finding means to ensure that space safety information is shared between US and Chinese civil and commercial space operators is a key challenge that must be addressed. We look forward to sharing perspectives on this challenge through this panel.” Each speaker then discussed the extent of existing physical interactions between US and Chinese constellations and the need for coordination, and from there explored what prospects may or may not exist for practical exchange of information.
The conversation highlighted the growing operational need for coordination between U.S. and Chinese satellite operators, especially as their constellations increasingly occupy overlapping orbital regimes.
Hesar presented data showing hundreds of thousands of monthly conjunctions between Chinese and non-Chinese satellites, emphasizing the risks posed by the lack of transparency about maneuvers.
Koller echoed this concern, noting that only half of the 1,500 satellites Kuiper identified in its orbital path had contact information available, and only eight responded to outreach, underscoring the fragility of current coordination mechanisms.
Burke provided insight into China’s SSA capabilities, noting that while China maintains a separate catalog and uses different tracking methods (e.g., space-based sensors), much of its data is kept behind login portals, mirroring the U.S. system. Schaffer emphasized the strategic imperative for engagement, arguing that space safety should be disentangled from space security and treated as a shared interest, even amid geopolitical tensions.
Zhang Peng’s video message offered a rare Chinese commercial perspective, affirming the mutual interest in avoiding collisions and proposing a three-point path forward: technical dialogue, a dedicated alert channel, and multilateral guidelines via the UN.
Panelists emphasized that while technical solutions are possible, the real challenge lies in diplomatic and regulatory barriers. They advocated for separating space safety from space security and using multilateral forums like the UN to build trust and shared norms.
DAY 3 KEYNOTE
The final day of the AMOS Conference started with a Fireside Chat titled “Reflections on the Evolution of U.S. Policy for Space Traffic Management”, bringing together three key figures who have helped to shape U.S. space policy across administrations: Richard DalBello, Principal, RDB Space; Diane Howard, Senior Strategy Advisor, MITRE & Principal at sur l’espace P, LLC; and Kevin O’Connell, Founder & CEO, Space Economy Rising, LLC.
All three have served at the U.S. Office of Space Commerce (OSC), starting with O’Connell taking on the Director role 2018-2021. Howard joined the office in 2019 to serve as Chief Counsel until 2021. DalBello took over as OSC Director from 2022-2024. Howard also served as Director, Commercial Space Policy at National Space Council during 2021-2024. The discussion centered on the uncertain future of the TraCSS system, a civil space traffic management initiative originally launched in 2018 under Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3) which directed that the Department of Commerce take over the public space flight safety data and services function from the Department of Defense.
O’Connell emphasized the enduring relevance of SPD-3, noting, “On the one hand, the policy has held up. On the other hand, it means we’ve only made some progress toward the ambitions of SPD-3. We haven’t completed the work at this point.” He advocated for leveraging the robust commercial ecosystem to address urgent space safety challenges.
Richard DalBello highlighted the lack of coherence in current policymaking, attributing it to budget-driven decisions rather than strategic planning: “There isn’t today this coherence that we might have seen. It’s quite possible that they’ll do something like that in the future.”
Diane Howard, who served in both the Trump and Biden administrations, passionately defended the TraCSS program and its foundational policy goals. She reminded the audience of the mission’s civil and international importance: “We have something. Love it, like it, hate it, matters not. We have something.” Howard also stressed the need for stability and continued support, warning against regressive debates.
The panelists agreed that stepping back from TraCSS would undermine U.S. leadership in global space governance. The chat concluded with a call for re-baselining government and industry roles, fostering innovation, and ensuring responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and the space environment.
The Fireside Chat dovetailed into the third AMOS Policy Forum that explored the evolving landscape of satellite servicing, commercial lunar missions, and space tourism.
DAY 3 AMOS POLICY FORUM
SSA Needs for Novel Space Activities
Moderated by Brian Weeden, Systems Directors, The Aerospace Corporation
Panelists:
• Alberto Águeda, Director of Space Surveillance and Traffic Management, GMV
• Mariel Borowitz, Director of International SSA Engagement (IPA), Office of Space Commerce, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
• Tahara Dawkins, Director of Policy, Astroscale
• Pascal Faucher, Chairman, EU SST, Defense and Security, CNES
• Carolin Frueh, Harold DeGroff Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University
Panelists discussed the readiness of current SSA systems, such as the US’s TraCSS and Europe’s EUSST, to support these emerging operations. Borowitz highlighted TraCSS’s pilot program, which already serves over 8,000 spacecraft with high-frequency screening and on-demand results, and is set for global rollout in January 2026.
Faucher emphasized Europe’s rapid expansion, noting EUSST’s growth to over 140 sensors and 82 registered operators, supported by over €100 million in commercial SSA projects. Both systems aim to provide basic collision avoidance services, while advanced capabilities for close-proximity operations are expected to be delivered by commercial SSA providers.
Panelists stressed the importance of transparency, coordination, and innovation in SSA. Dawkins underscored that ISAM (In-space Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing) missions demand more than positional data; they require predictive insights and behavioral analysis. Frueh warned that SSA capabilities for cislunar space are currently inadequate, calling for space-based sensors and better end-of-life practices to avoid repeating Earth orbit’s debris issues. Águeda advocated for machine-to-machine coordination and clear “rules of the road” to manage increasing traffic.
The forum concluded with a call for international collaboration, education, and proactive policy development. As Pascal noted, a working group of COPUOS agreed to a draft final report with three areas, SSA, space remediation, and ISAM, emerging as top priorities for global space sustainability.
FEATURED PRESENTATIONS
In addition to the keynotes and policy discussions, the conference included technical sessions, exhibit and poster sessions, fourteen technical short courses, plus featured presentations sprinkled through the program.
Colonel Jonathan Whitaker, Chief of Staff at NATO’s Combined Forces Space Component Command, emphasized the transformative power of international partnerships in space operations, drawing from his experiences across US SOUTHCOM and NATO. He illustrated how collaboration has evolved from concept to impactful action, enabling life-saving disaster response and countering adversarial influence in regions like South America. At NATO, he highlighted the growing integration of commercial and allied capabilities into a unified space strategy, with a focus on shared burden, mutual trust, and operational readiness.
“From my experience, when we partner, we win.” said Whitaker, emphasizing the importance and necessity of partnerships for global space security. “When we get the people aspect right, all of the rest of our problems are manageable,”
In his featured presentation, Colonel Barry Croker, Commander of US Space Force Mission Delta II, emphasized the critical role of space domain awareness (SDA) in safeguarding both national security and everyday life. He illustrated how space capabilities from GPS to environmental monitoring enable everything from air travel and food delivery to emergency rescue and surfing. Mission Delta II’s purpose, he explained, is to “discover, understand, and maintain custody of all activities in, from, and to space,” with a focus on adversaries who seek to avoid detection.
Croker detailed recent organizational and technological advancements, including the integration of cyber and sustainment squadrons, improvements to sensor performance, and the deployment of new satellite systems and software platforms.
“Effective SDA operations in a contested domain require proactive curiosity,” said Croker in a call for vigilance and initiative. “We can’t simply wait until activities are detected. We must seek them out and discover them with the tenacity of a hunter looking for prey.”
The Colonel also highlighted the unique contributions of Maui’s 15th Space Surveillance Squadron, whose location and capabilities provide unmatched visibility into geostationary orbit.
Barbara Golf, Strategic Advisor for the Space Development Agency (SDA) at U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command, delivered a comprehensive update on the evolving architecture of SDA. She emphasized that SDA extends far beyond cataloging space objects. It encompasses the identification, characterization, and understanding of all factors affecting the space domain, including electromagnetic spectrum operations, ground event monitoring, and environmental impacts.
Golf highlighted significant progress made in the past year, such as improved low Earth orbit (LEO) coverage, operational intelligence, and the integration of commercial data sources for enhanced situational awareness. She also discussed the implementation of tactical space-based electromagnetic interference (EMI) detection and the development of “event ledgers” for machine-to-machine data sharing across classification levels.
“Every satellite is a sensor,” stressed Golf. “And when you take that seriously for commercial SATCOM, we have a commercial SATCOM bird basically every degree at GEO. We have global coverage in order to be able to find jammers affecting SATCOM bands.” Golf’s presentation underscored the importance of agility, automation, and collaboration with commercial and allied partners to meet the growing demands of space operations.
Colonel Richard Beckman, Director, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate and Commander, AFRL Phillips Research Site, and Enrico Jeantete, Deputy Director, Innovation and Prototyping Acquisition Delta, Space Systems Command, gave a joint presentation in which they emphasized the critical importance of collaboration between government, industry, and academia to advance SDA and next-generation space mobility.
Beckman outlined AFRL’s strategy to “win the future” repeatedly by leveraging commercial innovation and focusing government efforts on high-risk, high-impact missions such as operations in cislunar space. He stressed the need to offload routine capabilities to industry to allow guardians to concentrate on strategic threats.
Jeantete described the transformation of SSC’s Innovation and Prototyping Delta into the Rapid Reaction Delta, which will focus on delivering operational capabilities and training guardians through live experimentation, including on-orbit refueling missions like Tetra 5 and Tracker Prime.
Both speakers called for deeper industry engagement to accelerate SDA capabilities and ensure readiness for emerging challenges. Beckman commented, “I only want my guardians doing that which the guardians must. And where I can leverage off of commercial, I will.”
Jeantete agreed, adding, “Commercial industry …. We need your help, so that we can focus our resources on each military aspect that we’re looking at. So please continue to innovate.”
TECHNICAL PAPERS PUBLISHED
Final papers are collated into the Proceedings for the year and are available 8-10 weeks post-conference. The conference also maintains an archive of individual technical papers presented at the AMOS Conference since 2006 which is searchable online as a resource to the SSA technical community https://amostech.com/archives/. In 2025, selected papers will be considered for publication in the 2025 AMOS edition of the AAS Journal of Astronautical Sciences, an archival publication devoted to the sciences and technology of astronautics. The journal presents significant new results, important insights, or state of the art surveys in all areas of astrodynamics, celestial mechanics, atmospheric flight mechanics, navigation and guidance, and space-related sciences.
AAS Awards
For the eighth year, the Space Surveillance Committee of the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and the AMOS Conference organizers presented Best Paper and Best Student Paper awards.
Best Paper for 2025 AMOS Conference was awarded to Roger Hunter, NASA, for “NASA’s Starling Mission and Space Situational Awareness Implication”. Allan Shtofenmakher, MIT, won the Best Student Paper Award for “Optimal Tasking and Scheduling of Satellite Constellations for Space Situational Awareness”.
BEST PAPER AWARD
Roger C. Hunter
NASA Ames Research Center
Overview of the NASA Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems Technology Demonstrations
Roger C. Hunter, Elwood F. Agasid, Samson Phan, Nathan A. Benz, Scott T. Miller, Caleb A. Adams, Brian C. Kempa, Jeremy D. Frank, and Michael J. Iatauro, NASA Ames Research Center Justin Kruger and Simone D’Amico EraDrive Inc. Julianna L. Fishman and Sasha V. Weston Millenium Engineering & Integration Company
ABSTRACT
The Small Spacecraft and Distributed Systems (SSDS) program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, expands the ability to execute unique missions through rapid development and demonstration of capabilities for small spacecraft applicable to exploration, science and the commercial space sector. Through targeted development and frequent space testing, the program: enables execution of missions at lower cost than previously possible; reduces the time requirement for development of spacecraft; enables new mission architectures through the use of small spacecraft; expands the reach of small spacecraft to new destinations and challenging new environments; and enables the augmentation of existing assets and future missions supporting small spacecraft. NASA’s Starling mission is advancing the readiness of various technologies for cooperative groups of spacecraft – also known as distributed missions, clusters, or swarms. Starling is demonstrating technologies to enable multipoint science data collection by several small spacecraft flying in swarms. The mission uses four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit to test four technologies that let spacecraft operate in a synchronized manner without resources from the ground. Starling launched July 17, 2023 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. This paper discusses the four technologies carried on Starling with an emphasis on two: Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) and Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment (StarFOX).
ROGER HUNTER BIO
With over 45 years’ experience in US Department of Defense, Commercial, and Government Space Missions, Roger Hunter currently serves as Program Manager for NASA Small Spacecraft Technology. In this capacity, he identifies and supports the development of new subsystem technologies to expand the capabilities of small spacecraft for NASA science and exploration objectives. Previously, he served for over six years as the Program Manager for the NASA Kepler Mission. The Kepler Mission’s principal scientific objective has been to determine the frequency of Earth-size planets, in the habitable zone, of other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. While working in the commercial space industry, Roger was the Program Manager for the Boeing Corporation’s Global Positioning System Sustainment activities for the the US Air Force. Roger also had a successful career in the US Air Force where he had assignments as a Program Manager for several space programs. Colonel Hunter served as a Squadron Commander and a Deputy Operations Group Commander within the US Air Force’s 50th Space Wing. Other US Air Force tours of duty included assignments with the Headquarters US Air Force, at the Pentagon, Washington DC; Headquarters US Air Force Space Command, and the US Air Force Research Laboratory. He holds academic degrees from the University of Georgia, The US Air Force Institute of Technology and the US Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies. Roger is also a graduate of the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College and the US Air Force Air War College (C). During his career he has lectured at: numerous US universities (including the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology); the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA; the University of Naples Federico II in Naples, Italy; the University of Florence in Florence, Italy; Rolls Royce HQ in Derby, England; and, the India Institute of Technology, Guwahati India. He has been a keynote speaker at a number of science and engineering-related Conferences and symposia and he has also served as a Commencement Speaker at a University of Georgia graduation. In addition, he’s a TEDx alumnus and speaker. He maintains and holds a Program Management Certification with NASA. He has been awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal and he received numerous awards and decorations for multiple mission accomplishments for NASA missions and for achievements during his Air Force career. His personal interests include reading, travel, tennis, running (many 10Ks, three half-marathons, two marathons, and counting), good wine, and good memes.
AAS BEST STUDENT PAPER
Allan Shtofenmakher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
ABSTRACT
Optimal Tasking and Scheduling of Satellite Constellations for Space Situational Awareness
As the population of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) continues to skyrocket, the operational systems and algorithms used to prevent in-space collisions and preserve space sustainability must be improved. At present, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) maintains a catalog of over 20,000 resident space objects (RSOs) in LEO, tracked primarily by ground-based sensors. A key weakness of ground-based space situational awareness (GB-SSA) systems is their limited geographic distribution, which leaves significant gaps in SSN coverage over portions of Europe, East Asia, and the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. By contrast, space-based sensors are not limited to any particular longitudes of space outside of geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO).
Unlike their ground-based counterparts, space-based space situational awareness (SB-SSA) sensors are generally unaffected by atmospheric and weather conditions. They offer more dynamic fields of regard than ground-based systems by virtue of their perpetual motion about the Earth. SB-SSA sensors tend to be more sensitive than GB-SSA ones and, consequently, can detect smaller and dimmer RSOs. The Space-Based Visible (SBV) sensor onboard the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite first demonstrated the potential of using onboard satellite sensors to detect and track RSOs in 1998. Since then, space-based space surveillance has been integral to the SSN’s mission, with additional space-based assets deployed every few years. All such assets have been optical in nature, although recent work has explored the feasibility of using radar and laser-based systems for SB-SSA.
Despite their many advantages, the deployment of dedicated SB-SSA systems has been quite limited. Four NorthStar-1 spacecraft, launched in January 2024, constitute the first commercial satellite constellation dedicated to SB-SSA. There is currently no known U.S. governmental satellite constellation dedicated to supporting the LEO space situational awareness (SSA) mission. Although the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) program was originally intended to include a constellation of four spacecraft at full deployment, as of January 2025, only one such $850M spacecraft has been launched. Nevertheless, both the United States and Europe are considering constellations of SSA spacecraft that would be capable of performing LEO-to-LEO SSA for the purposes of catalog maintenance.
Limited published research has focused on the tasking and scheduling algorithms used to assign space-based assets to track LEO RSOs. Miller’s special perturbations (SP) Tasker, the current operational algorithm for tasking (but not scheduling) the few existing SB-SSA systems to track objects primarily beyond LEO, became operational in 2005 and has struggled to keep pace with the dramatic population growth in Earth orbit. Recently published work to improve tasking or scheduling of multiple space-based sensors for SSA has typically implemented uncoordinated, single-sensor optimization strategies. For example, Paul and Lee used mutual information gain methods (with optimality guarantees) to task and schedule a single simulated ground-based optical telescope being supported by 12 space-based sensors, each of which passively collects data on 21 incidentally observed LEO RSOs. Similarly, Roberts et al used deep reinforcement learning to train a single space-based optical observer in LEO to track up to 400 near-GEO RSOs over a 60-min interval. To extend this to multiple agents, they performed tests with three copies of the same trained space-based observer, replicated into different orbits. Siew et al later extended this work to test similarly trained agents in scenarios featuring up to 800 near-GEO RSOs. However, given the current population of LEO, an operational-scale tasking and scheduling strategy needs to scale up to tens of thousands of RSOs. Greve developed a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm tasker (MEAT) for tasking, but not scheduling, both ground-based and space-based SSA systems. Although this approach was successfully applied in simulations with tens of thousands of RSOs, as an evolutionary algorithm, MEAT does not provide any guarantees of optimality. There is, however, no tasking and scheduling algorithm that is more scalable than the operational SP Tasker, and which provides some bounds or guarantees on performance as it relates to optimality.
To address these gaps, in recent work, we developed a novel tasking and scheduling formulation for the tracking of LEO RSOs using ground-based SSA sensors. Based on the classical vehicle routing problem (VRP), this formulation leverages a set of sparse, binary feasibility matrices to represent the nonlinear dynamics and constraints of the catalog maintenance problem. We were able to demonstrate our formulation through simulations with 10,000 RSOs tracked by 27 sensors over 24 hours. In parallel, we previously investigated the physics and considerations that enable optical space-based SSA, with a focus on detecting RSOs that are challenging to reliably track using ground-based sensors.
In the present work, we synthesize our earlier contributions, applying models of optical physics and comparable tasking and scheduling algorithms to space-based tracking of RSOs that are larger than 10 cm in characteristic length. We focus on a case study involving taskable constellations of purpose-built, agile satellites, like Canada’s Sapphire spacecraft, with specialized, body-pointed optical sensors dedicated to the SSA mission. We introduce a modified generalized assignment problem (GAP) formulation for optimally tasking and scheduling these spacecraft to maximize the number of RSOs that can be tracked in a given time horizon. We demonstrate the capability of this formulation at operational scales through simulations involving more than 10,000 LEO RSOs tracked over 24 hours. We compare the results with those of ground-based SSA simulations, illustrating the effectiveness of a constellation of satellites with optical sensors for space-based SSA. In summary, we contribute novel multi-sensor optimization strategies with optimality guarantees for tasking and scheduling space-based sensors for LEO catalog maintenance at operational scales.
ALLAN SHTOFENMAKER BIO
Allan Shtofenmakher is a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology performing research in the Dynamics, Infrastructure Networks, and Mobility (DINaMo) Laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Hamsa Balakrishnan. His current research interests are at the intersection of space situational awareness and control of multi-agent systems, with recent efforts focusing on optimal tasking and scheduling of ground-based and space-based sensors for tracking objects in low Earth orbit.
Best Student Paper winner Shtofenmakher (left) and Best Paper winner Hunter (right)
SAVE THE DATE
The AMOS Conference and EMER-GEN are presented by the Maui Economic Development Board, Inc. (MEDB), a nonprofit corporation established in 1982 to focus on diversifying Maui’s economy. MEDB’s mission involves taking innovative actions that strengthen existing industry as well as diversifying through new opportunities. Save the dates for AMOS 2026—September 15-18 with EMER-GEN Program on September 13-15.
JOURNALIST : Cindy Schumacher
Cindy Schumacher is a journalist from Maui, Hawaii. She currently writes the Focus Maui Nui articles in the Maui News for Maui Economic Development Board and is a contributing writer for the Lahaina News, and the Maui Pulse newspaper. She has written numerous articles on topics related to astronautics and space science for AAS Space Times, and has covered national and international conferences, including the annual AMOS Conference.
PHOTO CREDITS: Cindy Schumacher