Jose Miguel Lozano, GMV; Clara Martin, GMV; Miguel Guereñu, GMV; Javier Gil, GMV; Alejandro Sobrino, GMV; Carlos Paulete, GMV; Alejandro Alemán, GMV; Diego Escobar, GMV; Alfredo Antón, GMV; E. Janota, GMV; N. Czarnota, GMV; Martin Ploner, Digos; Emiliano Cordelli, European Space Agency; Andrea Di Mira, European Space Agency; Clemens Heese, European Space Agency; S. Metz, GMV
Keywords: laser, debris tracking
Abstract:
The current increase on the number of resident space objects demands the parallel development of new ground sensor technologies able to provide the coverage and accuracy required in order to maintain the sustainability of space operations. One of the sensor technologies being evolved nowadays for space debris monitoring is the laser ranging technology.
Tracking debris with ground lasers is becoming a mature technology these days. Hence, ESA has recently launched an activity within its Space Safety program to develop the so-called Debris Tracking Laser Network (DLTN), designed with two main components, a sensor network composed of participating laser stations, and an on-line platform allowing users to interact with the sensor network for various use cases. The activity has various main objectives as listed next: 1) extension of the ESA robotic optical ground station, Izaña-1 (IZN-1), to allow for daylight space debris tracking, 2) development of an on-line platform for end-users to support various use cases (sensor calibration, object observation, catalogue maintenance, collision risk refinement, re-entry prediction refinement, stare and chase), supported by a business case analysis, and 3) validation of the entire system through observation campaigns for each of the identified use cases involving various laser ranging stations via different service level agreements.
This paper will present the main results of the activity with special focus on the capabilities of the system accessible through its on-line platform as well as on the observation campaigns expected to take place in Summer 2024, after the completion of the extension of the IZN-1 station. In terms of the capabilities of the on-line platform, the expected interaction of the user with the platform for the various use cases will be described, as well as the required inputs and expected outputs of such interactions. For example, in the collision risk refinement, a user can provide a Conjunction Data Message (CDM) in the system and request observation from the DLTN until the covariance of the secondary object reaches a specified covariance reduction factor. Based on this request, the platform analyzes which lasers in the network are available and have observation opportunities, prepares a plan optimizing the observation requests to the lasers during the time interval up to the event deadline, and tasks them to gather the required observations. As the observations are produced by the lasers, and submitted back to the on-line platform, an orbit determination update is performed together with a reassessment of the collision risk posed by the event. Once the covariance reduction factor is achieved, no more observations are requested from the network and the user request is considered fulfilled. A similar case is the re-entry use case, where instead of a CDM, the user provides a Re-entry Data Message (RDM).
In terms of the observation campaigns, a description will be given for the different sub-campaigns performed to validate each of the use cases of the DLTN. Finally, a summary will be presented of the main benefits of using the DLTN concept for debris tracking in the various use cases identified as derived from the observation campaigns. Additionally, the required following steps in order to have the DLTN as an operational service will also be presented.
Date of Conference: September 17-20, 2024
Track: SDA Systems & Instrumentation