Spectral Analysis of Spacecraft via HETDEX

More than 500,000 pieces of debris and over a thousand operational satellites are currently being tracked in their orbits about the Earth. With an increasing number of space objects comes a more difficult tracking problem. An observation of a desired satellite can have multiple objects appearing in the field of view, and identifying these objects has become more complex. This study aims to produce a dataset of satellite reflectance spectra found within the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) survey in order to provide an orthogonal measurement to aid orbit determination. Spectroscopy is a technique that spreads the incoming light from a telescope along a wavelength axis, yielding characteristic information about the materials the object is made out of. This study demonstrates spectral differences between satellites in the 350-550 nm regime and develops an observation schedule to probe the variation in an observed spectrograph with respect to a changing solar phase angle. The satellite under directed observation from HET at McDonald Observatory will be Anik-F1R (PRN138), part of the publicly tracked Wide Area Augmentation System.