The Air Force Maui Optical & Supercomputing Site (AMOS) site consists of two facilities that are used together to conduct SSA R&D. The first facility is the Maui Space Surveillance System (MSSS), a complex of multiple telescopes located on the top of Haleakala at an altitude of 10,000 feet. The MSSS is co-located with one of the Air Force Space Command’s Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS). The second facility is the Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC) that is located at sea level and connected to the MSSS with high-speed fiber optic links.
AMOS combines small-, medium-, and large-aperture tracking optics, including the nation’s largest optical telescope designed for tracking satellites and missiles, with visible and infrared sensors to collect data on near-Earth and deep-space objects. The MHPCC computers are used to process and translate the data into SSA information.
Research thrusts at the AMOS site include satellite detection and identification, atmospheric compensation and resolved imaging, astrodynamics and orbital metrics, missile operations, sensor development, laser propagation through the Earth’s atmosphere, data base cataloging of satellite images, and high-performance computer modeling and simulation. In addition to its use as an R&D facility, AMOS has been called upon to help identify and/or track spacecraft payloads, communication satellites, orbital debris, missile trajectories, explosive wastes, and near-Earth asteroids.
Under the command of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Detachment 15, AMOS serves as the host unit for all Air Force resources on Maui. The AMOS workforce consists of ~40 government personnel, ~120 contractors supporting the Maui Space Surveillance System (Boeing LTS), and ~70 contractors supporting the MHPCC (University of Hawaii).
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