Heliostat -Arays Eyed for asteroid detection during night hours
A researcher at Sandia National Laboratories has presented an innovative new use for heliostats, the large mirrors that are usually used to concentrate sunlight on generating solar energy. John Sandusky believes that these mirrors can play a key role in detecting asteroids in the dark.
“Heliostat fields don’t have a night job. They are just unused there,” said Sandusky. “The nation has the opportunity to give them a night job at relatively low costs for finding objects in the neighborhood of the earth.” The approach could improve early detection and response to potential asteroid effects.
Traditional asteroid searches rely on telescopes of observatory quality to capture images of the night sky. Computers then analyze these images on vague stripes that indicate asteroids. However, this method is resource-intensive and slow, and building new observatories requires considerable investments.
As part of a research and development project targeted by Laboratory, Sandusky performed nocturnal tests in the National Solar Thermal Test Facility using a single heliostat from a 212 unit field. Instead of changing the mirror with specialized equipment, he used existing software to slowly oscillate his direction compared to the stars – which sweep back and forth once a minute.
“Solar Towers collect a million watt sunlight,” said Sandusky. “At night we want to collect a femtowatt, one millionth of a billionth of a watt power of sunlight that is spread from asteroids.”
By following the speed with which objects move in connection with the stars, Sandusky wants to detect asteroids, not through images, but by movement – an unconventional but potentially efficient approach.
During the test, Sandusky climbed the 200-foot solar tower in dusk and used standard optical tools to measure the light the heliostat focused on the tower. Data was collected all night with intervals of approximately 20 minutes.
The experiment did not try to discover asteroids, but successfully demonstrated the ability to wipe the heliostat and detect Starlight, to establish a proof of concept.
According to Sandusky, the potential benefits go beyond asteroid detection. The technology can support the efforts of our space power to check spacecraft, especially in challenging jobs near the moon.
He shared results with the International Society for Optics and Photonics and is looking for input from experts. “We want to hear from our colleagues in Optica and the asteroid hunting community,” he said. “Getting peer feedback offers the opportunity to understand what the worries are about how this technology will work.”
Future work can include following a well -known planet to test the accuracy and gradually scale from one heliostat to many in the hope of detecting smaller and weaker objects near the earth.
“We are looking for opportunities to scale up from one heliostat to many and try to show that we can help find objects near Earth,” said Sandusky. “We also want to demonstrate that we can scale up the technology to detect even smaller asteroids.”
