Saber Astronautics received a United States Air Force (USAF) Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to automate space domain awareness.
Named Sentinel, the software tool provides continuous real time insights and detection of hazardous events in space. Currently, space operators must manually search, sort, and analyse the multitude of data points available. A push toward automation allows operators to focus on higher level analysis, faster response times, and generally greater accuracy and efficiency.
Saber USA Director, Nathan Parrott, explains "One of the problems we have with space traffic management is that operators are overwhelmed in a sea of data, preventing them from identifying risky scenarios before they happen. Sentinel is an automated system that can continuously keep an eye on this ocean and pull out just the events that operators are interested in most, saving them time and improving accuracy."
Saber Astronautics currently uses Sentinel internally as part of the Responsive Space Operations (RSOC) program. The RSOC is a next generation space mission control with sites located in Colorado and Australia. For the first phase of the project Saber Astronautics will investigate the specific working needs of military operators particularly for the United States Space Force (USSF) to support missions in geosynchronous orbit.