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Anduril tests infrared sensor to track satellites in Earth's shadow
Anduril said Tuesday its Anduril-216 satellite demonstrated a long-wave infrared sensor meant to track spacecraft that maneuver while in Earth's shadow, Ars Technica reported.
- New headline Was: “Anduril demos night-vision sensor for tracking satellites in darkness”
- Our desk filed its story
Anduril Industries said Tuesday that a company-funded demonstration satellite, Anduril-216, had successfully tested a long-wave infrared sensor meant to track other spacecraft while they pass through Earth's shadow, Ars Technica reported1.
The oven-sized satellite launched on a SpaceX rideshare in July with an edge-compute processor, a power-management system, and the infrared imager, according to Ars Technica1.
Ars Technica said Anduril-216 flies about 590 kilometers (366 miles) above Earth and spends about one-third of each orbit in darkness, when the infrared camera is intended to work1.
Gokul Subramanian, Anduril's senior vice president of engineering, said the sensor has a large dynamic range, is rarely blocked by the Sun, and can image objects in full dark, according to Ars Technica1.
"What's unique is it's got a huge dynamic range. We can see things in full dark," Subramanian said, as quoted by Ars Technica1.
Ars Technica said U.S. military and commercial networks of radars and optical sensors can lose track of a spacecraft that maneuvers while in eclipse, a gap Anduril said it is trying to close1.
Adam Thurn, vice president and general manager of orbital systems at Anduril, said ground sensors are not available in adversaries' territory and that visible sensors cannot see satellites that are not lit by the Sun, Ars Technica reported1.
The long-wave infrared sensor detects heat from spacecraft during eclipse periods, Thurn said, according to the outlet1.
Ars Technica said Anduril acquired commercial satellite-tracking firm ExoAnalytic Solutions earlier this year and adapted imaging technology from its autonomous weapons for the space sensor1.
The company released one image from Anduril-216 showing the Moon above Earth's horizon in infrared; Thurn said the instrument can produce both unresolved and resolved imagery and could inspect other satellites if it flew close enough, Ars Technica reported1.
Apex Space built the spacecraft bus; Subramanian said Anduril does not plan to make its own satellite platforms and instead intends to buy third-party buses and add sensors and compute, according to Ars Technica1.
Ars Technica said Anduril's present focus is selling space-domain-awareness data to the U.S. military rather than selling the satellites or sensors themselves; Subramanian said that stance could change1.
