Ever since China showed the world it could shoot satellites out of orbit, the U.S. Air Force has been accelerating its efforts to enable future satellites to detect impending attacks.

What the Air Force wants is for its satellites to be equipped with a technology that will offer commanders on the ground solid information about who launched the attack. This effort to make satellites more alert to their surroundings is being called Self-Aware Space Situational Awareness, or SASSA.

Currently, the Air Force is reviewing bids by at least two major defense firms to build "suites" of threat-detecting sensors for satellites.

The Air Force says the sensor suite should include a "visible camera" for spotting and identifying nearby objects, and other sensors for detecting laser attacks and radio frequency jamming, proximity sensors to judge the distance of surrounding objects and sensors to measure the space environment. Ultimately, different sensors may be placed on different satellites, depending on their missions and the threats that particular satellites are expected to confront, said Todd Citron, director of space superiority and special missions for Boeing in El Segundo, Calif. Boeing and its defense industry rival Lockheed Martin have submitted proposals for building the sensor suites.

The sensors already exist, Citron said. The task for Boeing and Lockheed is to combine them in a lightweight payload that can plug easily into just about any satellite.

Today, each of the sensors would have to be installed in a satellite separately, and its telemetry carefully woven into the satellite's communications system. SASSA's modular approach is intended to produce a cost-effective method for making future satellites "self aware."

The Air Force Space Superiority Systems Wing said it plans to award two contracts by October. The contracts are expected to be worth approximately $30 million.

The Air Force hopes to have sensors and accompanying communications gear ready for launch on satellites in 2010 or 2011.

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