Optical In-Situ Monitor Breadboard System

The aim of the ESA GSTP activity „Optical In-Situ Monitor“ is to design and test a breadboard of a space-based space debris camera and to develop and test its end-to-end processing chain. The corresponding future flight model shall be used for the detection of small-sized (down to 1 mm) space debris in LEO as well as larger objects in GEO. It is intended to be flown on a platform in sun-synchronous orbit near the terminator plane. The breadboard system will constitute a unique facility to perform realistic tests of the end-to-end chain for debris observations within a controlled environment. This E2E chain starts from signal generation via the scene generator, is followed by the acquisition of images via the breadboard instrument and finally performs the data processing until the astrometric and photometric reduction step. The paper provides details on requirements and design of the breadboard system.