Newswise — There exist approximately 7,000 satellites orbiting Earth, swiftly observing and creating numerous terabytes of data each day for our planet's surface. Various governments and businesses operate these satellites, and their information is dispersed among diverse stakeholders, each with their own goals, rendering it unfeasible for any individual research team to fully exploit the potential of the planet's orbiting sensors.
A digital system named NOS-T (short for New Observing Strategies Testbed) has been developed by Stevens Institute of Technology researchers. This platform allows numerous groups to simulate information transfers between orbiting fleets and land-based antennae, aiding in the resolution of intricate earth science issues, such as identifying wildfires.
According to Paul Grogan, the project leader and an associate professor of systems engineering at Stevens, NOS-T offers researchers a means to swiftly create prototype collaborative space research ventures. This platform addresses numerous difficulties that might otherwise hinder the creation of such distributed missions.
The findings, published in Systems Engineering, detail how networked satellites can produce significantly more precise images, providing a considerably enhanced view of the Earth's surface. Grogan and his colleagues at Stevens explain how employing multiple satellites also simplifies continuous monitoring of particular areas, which is crucial for tracking wildfires or predicting landslides by monitoring water-saturated soil. In contrast, individual satellites are restricted to scanning only the regions they pass over.
NOS-T functions by allowing organizations to model their own satellites and data independently, then exchange messages with authorized data in limited quantities. Essentially, NOS-T serves as a link, allowing organizations to connect their devices and share information without providing direct access to sensitive details regarding the data, control algorithms, and other technologies they are utilizing.
NOS-T is set to be used in planning real-world space missions, with NASA's Earth Science and Technology Office slated to commence evaluating mission proposals using NOS-T next year. Additionally, some mission designers are already utilizing NOS-T to authenticate new research frameworks before seeking federal funding. Grogan explained that by using NOS-T, researchers can verify the feasibility of the distributed aspects of a space project before investing millions of dollars into building equipment and launching satellites.
Grogan commented that "With the decrease in space launch costs, we're seeing a variety of organizations starting to place sensors in orbit. This implies that the future of space research will have to be collaborative - but first, we need to be able to model and test collaborative relationships just as comprehensively as we examine the hardware we're employing."
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