James Bennett (RMIT University / EOS Space Systems), Professor Jizhang Sang (Wuhan University), Professor Craig Smith (EOS Space Systems), Professor Kefei Zhang (RMIT University)
Keywords: Short-arc orbit determination, debris, laser tracking
Abstract:
In this paper results are presented from a short-arc orbit determination study using optical and laser tracking data from the Space Debris Tracking System located at Mount Stromlo, Australia. Fifteen low-Earth orbit debris objects were considered in the study with perigee altitudes in the range 550?850 km. In most cases, a 2-day orbit determination was considered using 2 passes of optical and 2 passes of laser tracking data. A total of 33 1-day and 26 2-day orbit prediction cases were compared with residuals obtained by comparing the orbit prediction with subsequent tracking data. A comparison was made between the orbit prediction accuracies for 2 orbit determination variants: (1) Entire passes are used during the orbit determination process; (2) Only 5 seconds is used from the beginning of each pass. Overall, the short-arc orbit determination results in (slightly) worse 1 and 2 day orbit prediction accuracies when compared to using the full observation arcs; however, the savings in tracking load outweighs the reduction in accuracy. If the optical or laser data is left out of the 5-second pass orbit determination process, most cases diverged which shows the importance of 3-dimenional positioning. Two-line element data was used to constrain the orbit determination process resulting in better convergence rates, but the resulting orbit prediction accuracy was much worse. The results have important implications for an optical and laser debris tracking network with potential savings in tracking load. An experimental study will be needed to verify this statement.
Date of Conference: September 9-12, 2014
Track: Poster