{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T21:03:09Z","timestamp":1792789389408,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,26]],"date-time":"2025-12-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1766707200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant","award":["RGPIN-2025-06284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RGPIN-2025-06284"]}]},{"name":"Department of National Defence (Canada) and NSERC through the DND\/NSERC Discovery Grant Supplement","award":["DGDND-2025-06284"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DGDND-2025-06284"]}]},{"name":"Canadian Space Agency (CSA) through the Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) program","award":["23FAYORA06"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["23FAYORA06"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The growing density of Earth-orbiting objects demands improved Space Situational Awareness (SSA) to mitigate collision risks and sustain space operations. This study demonstrates a dual-purpose star tracker (ST) for SSA using data from the Resident Space Object Near-space Astrometric Reconnaissance (RSONAR) stratospheric balloon campaign under the 2022 Canadian Space Agency\u2013Centre National d\u2019\u00c9tudes Spatiales (CSA\u2013CNES) STRATOS program. The low-cost optical payload\u2014a wide-field monochromatic imager flown at 36 km altitude\u2014acquired imagery subsequently used for post-processed attitude determination and Resident Space Object (RSO) detection. During stabilized pointing, over 27,000 images yielded sub-pixel astrometry and stable image quality (mean full-width-Half-maximum \u2248 388 arcsec). Photometric calibration to the Tycho-2 catalog achieved 0.37 mag root mean square (RMS) scatter, confirming radiometric uniformity. Apparent angular velocities of 7\u00d7102 to 8\u00d7103 arcsec s\u22121 corresponded to sunlit low-Earth-orbit (LEO) objects observed at 25\u00b0\u201335\u00b0 phase angles. Covariance-weighted Mahalanobis correlation with two-line elements (TLEs) achieved sub-arcminute positional agreement. The Proximity Filtering and Tracking (PFT) algorithm identified 22,036 total RSO and 387 total streaks via image stacking. Results confirm that commercial off-the-shelf STs can serve as dual-use SSA payloads, and that stratospheric ballooning offers a viable alternative for optical SSA research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26010179","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,29]],"date-time":"2025-12-29T00:50:42Z","timestamp":1766969442000},"page":"179","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["RSONAR: Data-Driven Evaluation of Dual-Use Star Tracker for Stratospheric Space Situational Awareness (SSA)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-7444-2825","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vithurshan","family":"Suthakar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-6746-5774","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ian","family":"Porto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-4983-5589","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marissa","family":"Myhre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Aiden Alexander","family":"Sanvido","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-3766-0573","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ryan","family":"Clark","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"MDA Space, 13800 Commerce Pkwy, Richmond, BC V6V 2J3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Regina S. K.","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"UK Government (2025, March 18). The Future Space Environment, Available online: https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/the-future-space-environment."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"McDowell, J.C. (2025, October 09). Satellite Catalog: Launch and Decay Data (tab1a.txt). Available online: https:\/\/planet4589.org\/space\/stats\/out\/tab1a.txt."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"European Space Agency (ESA) (2025, March 18). DISCOSWeb Statistics. Available online: https:\/\/sdup.esoc.esa.int\/discosweb\/statistics\/."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"NASA (2024, November 27). 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