IARPA to host SINTRA Proposer’s Day

On July 20, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) announced plans to hold a Proposer’s Day for the Space Debris Identification and Tracking (SINTRA) Program. The SINTRA Proposers’ Day meeting will be held on August 10, 2022, from 10:30am to 5:00pm EDT to introduce the SINTRA program to potential proposers and to provide information on technical requirements and program objectives. Participants must register prior to Friday, August 5, 2022, at noon EDT.

The IARPA SINTRA program aims to investigate the interaction of orbital debris with the surrounding space environment and drive the state of the art to detect, track, and characterize lethal non-trackable orbital space debris. Space debris poses a risk to all space missions, including those of the Intelligence Community (IC). With an average low Earth orbit (LEO) impact velocity of 22,500 MPH, even the smallest of debris can cause significant damage.

Currently, there are over 100 million objects greater than 1 mm orbiting the Earth, however, less than 1 percent of debris that can cause mission-ending damage are currently tracked. Due to the dynamic nature of the near-Earth space environment, predicting the trajectory of the debris is extremely difficult necessitating persistent monitoring. While debris larger than 10 cm can be detected and tracked, smaller debris cannot be tracked using current capabilities. Therefore, there is an increased interest in tracking debris less than 10 cm. The detection, tracking, and characterization of lethal non-trackable space debris would support the safe operation of valuable space assets worldwide.

The SINTRA Proposers’ Day is a hybrid event that will be broadcast via the Webex video conference platform for remote attendees. In person, participation is encouraged to facilitate information exchange and team forming. For planning purposes, the venue is located near Court House Metro Station in Arlington, VA.

Successful SINTRA proposals will assemble teams with diverse expertise and capabilities. This event provides an opportunity for prospective offerors to scout collaborations with other interested organizations. Participants are encouraged to present lightning talks and submit capabilities statements. The information submitted in either format will not be reviewed or considered by the government for any purpose other than to ensure the appropriateness of content