Christopher Kebschull, OKAPI:Orbits; Adam Stradomski, OKAPI:Orbits; Daniel Lubián-Arenillas, OKAPI:Orbits
Keywords: Space, Traffic, Coordination, STM, SSA, Architecture, Automated
Abstract:
With the decrease in launch and satellite manufacturing cost, within 10 years the number of active spacecraft on orbit has increased 7-fold from 1300 in the year 2014 to 9500 to in the beginning of 2024. Most of these spacecraft share similar orbits, leading to a spike in conjunctions between active satellites. Historically, they have been driven by an accelerating rate of debris generation caused by on-orbit fragmentations due to explosions and collisions. Events such as the Fengyun-1C ASAT and the collision of Iridium 33 with the Cosmos 2251 resulted in an instant increases of lethal debris objects. As a result, satellite operators reacted to the increase by first utilizing Space Situational Awareness (SSA) providers to protect their missions and performing collision avoidance maneuvers. The space industry has made significant advancements in defining standards for data exchange and interoperability. Furthermore, standards have been developed. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) provides a comprehensive suite for space data system architectures, information standards, and data handling protocols.
With the trend to utilize the low Earth orbit by Earth observation and communication constellations new challenges arise due to the need to coordinate between operators during conjunction events. Formerly, operators resort to email or other conventional methods to communicate with their conjunction partner, which is prone to miscommunication and loss of mission time, if communication is achieved at all. Space Traffic Management (STM) providers intend to solve this problem by empowering the operators in defining rules, providing a platform to communicate and share data coupled with a clearly communicated timeline with actions both partners can take and agree on – even in an automated manner.
An STM system has been developed focusing on the coordination need of constellation operators. Access to the system is given to signed up users and guests, who have the ability to observe the updates of the event and the actions taken by the active party. Different protocols allow the automation of the assignment process. Operators can subscribe to multiple protocols, which can be bi-lateral or multi-lateral in nature. Subscribing to protocols yields the benefit of skipping the need for negotiations. The STM system relies on the SSA services to provide and (re-)evaluate conjunction warnings based on multiple data sources such as customer-provided satellite information, ephemeris, maneuver plans, or GNSS data, as well as dedicated tracking data from space sensors. To facilitate trust, within both conjunction partners, but also available as own verification service, confirmed and tentative trajectories are screened against the SSA catalogue. The architecture of the STM system has been designed to be SSA provider agnostic and the challenge of data sharing in a global context in mind. An interface has been created to (a) exchange satellite and orbit information (b) trigger SSA services via REST APIs. A traceability requirement needs to be fulfilled by the STM system to be document all actions performed by the operators and values provided from the SSA interface. In addition, the system needs to be auditable by a monitoring entity. Similar developments have been seen in the financial and health care sectors. The paper gives an overview and evaluates the state of the art and applicability in the context of the STM field.
Date of Conference: September 17-20, 2024
Track: Space Domain Awareness