Ibadan, 18 September 2024. – Riverside Research, a national security nonprofit supporting the U.S. government, has selected NorthStar Earth & Space Systems to team up on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Space-WATCH program to improve and enhance capabilities to detect threats in space from unexpected events or maneuvers (“anomalies”).
As a result, the national security outfit will use deep learning methods on new observations and state vectors from NorthStar’s “always on,” space-based Wide Field of View (WFOV) SSA collection, its synthetic simulations, and its patented processing routines to deliver more advanced commercial SSA tools. Furthermore, the Riverside Research solution is cloud-based for secure integration into existing software systems and scalable to allow extensibility to emerging sensors and proliferated space architectures.
Riverside Research and NorthStar are also developing an enhanced automated tip-and-cue solution that leverages NorthStar’s discovery of anomalous events to drive the tasking of an orchestrated collection with auxiliary sensors to provide detailed object characterization and actionable domain awareness and insights for end users.
Speaking on the collaboration, Tim Waltz, Vice President of Sensors & Systems at Riverside Research, commented, “NorthStar’s cutting-edge technology and innovative approach to collecting space-based observations serve as game-changers to unlocking the full potential of our advanced algorithms.”
The Vice President also added, “NorthStar’s expertise complements our ability to detect and track space objects and debris with unprecedented accuracy, driving forward our mission to achieving assured Space Domain Awareness and to addressing the growing challenges of space congestion at speed and scale.”
In the same vein, Will Woods, Director of Technology for NorthStar, said, “Space is congested and contested. Providing defense and commercial space operators with accurate and timely space situational awareness is critical. The partnership between Riverside Research and NorthStar will directly address this urgent challenge.”
