Jose Maria Hermoso, CDTI; Vincent Morand, CNES; Igone Urdampilleta Aldama, CDTI; Vincent Morand, CNES; Emmanuel Delande, CNES; Johannes Gelhaus, DLR; Elena Vellutini, ASI; Violeta Poenaru, ROSA; José Freitas, PT MoD; Miko?aj Kru?y?ski, Polish Space Agency; Daniel Garcia-Yarnoz, SatCen; Nuria Guijarro López, DEIMOS Space
Keywords: EUSST, simulation, architecture, coverage, cataloguing, SST, sensors
Abstract:
This paper presents the approach followed to evaluate the performance of the current and future architectures of the EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EUSST) system. It provides a description of the tools and techniques, as well as the simulation hypotheses, used to evaluate the expected orbital regime coverage (observation capability) and cataloguing capability (with associated accuracy analysis of the resulting orbital information), as a function of the possible evolutions of the sensing architecture.
This study has been executed by two different engineering teams with independent tools, for validation purposes. The first analysis utilises the BAS3E tool, belonging to CNES; and the other one uses AS4/Ssasim, under supervision of CDTI. The two tools are presented, as well as the simulation hypotheses and techniques. The overall analysis is based on the underlying population of objects from ESA´s MASTER-2009 reference population propagated to 2040. Both tools allow for the simulation of the observations generated by a network of sensors, the data processing of these observations to generate a catalogue of objects, and the assessment of the space surveillance and tracking system performance through key performance indicators.
These key indicators for architecture performance are also presented and discussed. Among them, the following aspects are considered for coverage: the number of observed objects, the number of so-called well observed objects the total number of tracks, the mean track length, the mean number of observation opportunities, and the mean gap duration. For the cataloguing capability per orbital regime the following aspects are considered: the number of catalogued objects, the number of objects with orbital accuracy better than an imposed threshold and average accuracy of catalogued, among others.
After the detailed presentation of the system engineering tools and techniques, this paper provides a few sample results to illustrate the architectural studies performed and to provide insight in the different architectural options, highlighting the benefit of having an architecture to be able to catalogue.
Date of Conference: September 14-17, 2021
Track: SSA/SDA