Ground-calibration tests for optical surface inspection in space

We are proposing in-situ debris measurements in high Earth orbit such as geosynchronous orbit using a camera onboard a spacecraft. This camera inspects the spacecraft's surfaces in space and provides us impact features on the surfaces without retrieval of surfaces or spacecraft to the ground. The impact features can be related to the size of the particle impacted based on calibration tests on ground. Currently we are investigating what kind of impact features we can obtain through the optical surface inspection and how we can relate the impact features to the size of the particle impacted. This paper will demonstrate a candidate technique.