Multi-Aperture Optical System of Photon Counting in the Image for Aberration-Free Space Debris Observations through a Turbulent Atmosphere (Part I)

The paper solves the problem of space debris monitoring to ensure the safety of space exploration. Space debris fragments are small-sized control objects with angular sizes up to 0.002 arcsecond. Therefore, optoelectronic systems of high resolution and permeability allowing one to measure the coordinates and recognize these weak control objects with a given accuracy and probability having integral brightness up to +18 stellar magnitude are necessary for the location (search, detection, measurement, and identification) of space debris fragments. To solve the optical location problems of space debris the Part I of the article proposes the concept of building a ground-based optoelectronic control system. The system consists of three consecutive and interrelated information channels: an image formation channel based on the matrix of individual telescopes and aperture synthesis technology; image detection channel based on scanning raster detectors and photon counting technology in the image; and image processing channel based on digital correlation compensation technology of atmospheric distortions. Advantages of a matrix of separate telescopes, photodetection and correlation processing are noted in the article. The proposed concept is protected by a patent of the Russian Federation, which is discussed in detail in Part II.