Optical survey observations for satellites and debris around planned geostationary orbit of next generation engineering satellite

NICT (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) is currently developing an ultra-high speed optical terminal called “HICALI,” which will be installed in a next generation engineering test satellite. This satellite will stay on a geostationary orbit. In order to achieve the laser communications between the satellite and NICT's optical ground stations, the orbit should be undisturbed by other geostationary satellites or space debris. We carried out optical observations to search objects around the 143E geostationary orbit using a 35cm optical telescope at Kashima Space Technology Center. In this paper, we will introduce observational technics and image data analysis methods, and also show estimated evaluation of spatial distribution of objects around the target area based on the observational results.