Duration: 18 months
Space situational awareness (SSA) is the ability to monitor and understand the space environment and the threats it poses to space and ground assets, as well as to humans. One of the components of SSA is the detection and characterization of near-Earth objects (NEOs), which are natural space objects, such as asteroids and comets, that approach the Earth and may pose a collision risk. NEO polarimetry is a technique that uses the polarization of light reflected by NEOs to infer their physical properties, such as shape, size, surface roughness, and composition. Polarimetry can provide valuable information for assessing the impact hazard and mitigation strategies of NEOs, as well as for scientific exploration and planetary defense. NEO polarimetry can be performed using ground-based or space-based telescopes, as well as dedicated missions to rendezvous with NEOs. Typically these measurements are done with polarimeters based on rotating waveplates, beam-splitters with polarizing filters or Wollaston prisms which often leads to heavy and bulky instruments with moving parts. Idea is to utilize the emerging technology of assorted pixels with polarization filters directly deposited on the detector and evaluate its performance in the laboratory, as well as during operational usage, in comparison to the already existing solution. The market currently offers ready-to-use cameras equipped with such sensors. If this method exhibits promising sensitivity, it could be applied to monitor near-Earth objects in space.
