[Satellite TODAY Insider 10-05-11] A U.S. Air Force Academy physics department research center has been awarded a research grant worth approximately $800,000 to study space situational awareness, the Air Force Academy announced Oct. 3.

   The Air Force Office of Scientific Research issued the grant under the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program. Air Force academy students will team up with colleges in Colorado and Chile to develop a Falcon Telescope network of small telescopes for satellite tracking and characterization.

   The cadets also will team up with four colleges in Colorado to locate and operate observatories, as well as to provide land, power, Internet, and minor annual operations and maintenance. The grant includes funding for a fifth telescope observatory in the country of Chile. The telescope network will form the basis for the cadets’ education and research program in space situational awareness.

   “Space situational awareness is the foundation for all that the U.S. Department of Defense and Air Force does in space,” Air Force Principle Researcher Francis Chun said in a statement. “The Air Force routinely tracks over 22,000 objects on a daily to weekly basis, but we believe there are hundreds of thousands of space objects in orbit that are too small for our current sensors to detect. Over time, space will only get more congested as more countries launch satellites and more collisions between space objects occur. All of this will have a negative impact on our lives from banking to weather forecasting to navigating to communicating.”

   Once completed, the Air Force said that cadets would use the network to conduct research in space situational awareness with a specific emphasis on characterizing satellites through simultaneous observations taken from multiple telescope sites.

   “The grant will provide these colleges a permanent telescope observatory that they can use for course work, laboratories and open houses to excite and inspire young students to consider a career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” Air Force Academy officials said.