James Frith, University of Texas El Paso, Jacobs JETS Contract, NASA Johnson Space Center, Ed Barker, LZ Technology, Inc, Heather Cowardin, University of Texas El Paso, Jacobs JETS Contract, NASA Johnson Space Center, Brent Buckalew, Jacobs, NASA Johnson Space Center, Phillip Anz-Meador, Jacobs, NASA Johnson Space Center, Susan Lederer, NASA Johnson Space Center
Keywords: Orbital Debris, GEO, orbit determination, Modeling, Survey
Abstract:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO) recently commissioned the Meter Class Autonomous Telescope (MCAT) on Ascension Island with the primary goal of obtaining population statistics of the geosynchronous (GEO) orbital debris environment. To help facilitate this, studies have been conducted using MCAT’s known and projected capabilities to estimate the accuracy and timeliness in which it can survey the GEO environment, including collected weather data and the proposed observational data collection cadence. To optimize observing cadences and probability of detection, on-going work using a simulated GEO debris population sampled at various cadences are run through the Constrained Admissible Region Multi Hypotheses Filter (CAR-MHF). The orbits computed from the results are then compared to the simulated data to assess MCAT’s ability to determine accurately the orbits of debris at various sample rates. The goal of this work is to discriminate GEO and near-GEO objects from GEO transfer orbit objects that can appear as GEO objects in the environmental models due to the short arc observation and an assumed circular orbit. The specific methods and results are presented here.
Date of Conference: September 19-22, 2017
Track: Orbital Debris