Balor DefenseEvent-Based Vision

Applications / Space domain awareness · missile defense research

Watch the sky with a sensor that only reports what moves

Event sensing for space domain awareness, from the ground and on orbit. Map the stars, separate the movers, and send tracks instead of pictures.

Demonstrated on field dataGround collection of the ISS and other LEO objects, October 2026
Concept illustration: a ground event sensor maps background stars as a reference, separates satellite tracks from star drift, and reports tracks rather than imagery
Concept. Stars are the reference; long movers are the product. The node reports tracks, not pictures.

The problem

Persistent watch is a power and bandwidth problem

Most of the sky does not change from one moment to the next. A frame imager still spends power, storage and downlink on every pixel of it, which is what makes persistent watch from small platforms expensive.

An event sensor spends almost nothing on sky that is not changing, and its output is already close to a track.

Why event sensing

Stars as the referenceBackground stars are mapped in every segment and used for pointing and bias. Satellites and debris are what moves against them.
Tracks, not imageryFiltering and tracking run on the node. What leaves it is a short list of tracks, at a fraction of the data rate of imagery.
Holds up in a bright skyOur first collection ran from a residential street under street lamps, with trees in the field. The tracks held.
Link down, keep workingTracks are stored in priority order when the link drops and replayed when it returns.

Evidence

First light

In October 2026 our team tracked the International Space Station and several other LEO objects, including tumbling rocket bodies, from the ground with a 16 mm lens. Each panel is a separate recording.

Four event-camera recordings of the night sky with tracked satellites, rocket bodies and the ISS labelled against mapped background stars
Oct 2026Ground-based event-camera collection, 19–20 October 2026, 16 mm lens. Top: satellites and tumbling rocket bodies separated from star drift. Bottom: two takes of the same ISS pass under street-lamp light pollution, with tree canopy in the field.
Event-camera view of an ISS pass with the camera turned by hand, the ISS track held against moving trees and stars
Oct 2026Same ISS pass, camera turned by hand to follow it. The scene sweeps; the track holds, because the stars give the pipeline its own motion reference.
Next

Missile defense

Fast, bright, transient events are where event sensing is strongest. We are pursuing missile warning and tracking as research. No results are published yet.

Next

On orbit

The same node design, sized for a small spacecraft: on-board detection and tip-and-cue, at a power and downlink budget that makes persistent watch affordable.

Own a program in this space?

If size, power, cost or a frame sensor’s limits are what stand between you and the requirement, we would like to hear about it.

Start a conversationSee the platform