Initial asteroid detection results using the Space Surveillance Telescope

The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), conducted asteroid search from 1998 to 2013 using two 1m optical telescopes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory (MITLL) Experimental Test Site (ETS) in Socorro, NM. During this period, the LINEAR program made significant contributions to the discovery of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), thereby improving knowledge of the NEO size distribution and helping to characterize the threat from NEOs. The LINEAR program has now transitioned to operations using the new 3.5 m wide-field-of-view Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) located at the Atom Site on White Sands Missile Range, NM. The SST was developed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by MITLL to advance the nation's capabilities in space situational awareness. The goals of LINEAR using SST are to continue discovering NEOs, to improve knowledge of the NEO size distribution down to 140 m, and to discover small (2–15 m diameter) NEOs potentially suitable for a NASA asteroid retrieval mission. This paper will describe the capabilities of SST for asteroid search, the strategy for LINEAR search using SST, and the new LINEAR SST processing pipeline. Recent simulation, observing, and detection results will also be presented, along with planned improvements to the system.