Kala was born and raised in O‘ahu and attended Punahou School ’22. He is currently attending Harvey Mudd College as a rising senior studying Engineering. He is interested in a career in Hawai‘i in the aerospace industry.
Home Island: O‘ahu
High School: Punahou School
Institution when accepted: Harvey Mudd College
Project Site: Space Systems Command, Kihei, Maui
Mentors: Zach Gazak & Ryan Swindle
Project title: Determining the Viability of Event-Based Sensors for Space Domain Awareness
Project Abstract:
Event-based sensors (EBS) are a new technology that captures images differently from traditional cameras. Rather than taking an exposure over an entire frame, each pixel is an individual sensor that sends out an event when the brightness rises or falls past a threshold. Images only update when they are changing, which allows for motion detection against any background. The data from these sensors has microsecond accuracy, enabling precise space imaging rather than analysis of streaks from long exposure. The EBS is not subject to the saturation, which affects traditional cameras when imaging near the moon or during the day. The project’s main goal was to explore the capabilities of the EBS, with use cases including general characterization of satellites and identification of hostile space objects. Traditional cameras are vulnerable to space objects that become hostile near the moon or even during the day. Thus, the project explored the sensor’s effectiveness at various times of day and around the moon at night. To tackle these goals, data collection and post-processing methods were developed to detect space objects using EBS data. Tasking algorithms were created to control the telescope mount and record necessary data for post-processing. Additional algorithms were designed to remove noise, detect objects, enhance detail in scans, and stitch data together to create larger images. The experiments concluded that the EBS sensor is promising and capable of capturing images that a traditional camera could not. However, the current telescope setup struggles with a limited field of view and has a high limiting magnitude.