Shawn Seunghwan Choi, SPACEMAP Inc, Hanyang University; Peter (Joonghyun) Ryu, SPACEMAP Inc., Voronoi Diagram Research Center; Chanyoung Song, Hanyang University; Minwoo Ji, Hanyang University; Jaedong Seong, Korea Aerospace Research Institute; Misoon Mah, M&K Research & Development; Roberto Furfaro, University of Arizona; Douglas Deok-Soo Kim, SPACEMAP Inc., Voronoi Diagram Research Center, Hanyang University
Keywords: Conjunction Assessment, Maneuver Planning, Real-time, Optimization, Data Transmission, Constellation
Abstract:
The busy orbital space is getting busier in the New Space Age. This phenomenon increases collision probability between resident space objects (RSOs) rather rapidly. As RSOs fly at the speed of several times of a bullet, the consequence of collision is catastrophic. However, an accurate and efficient prediction of conjunctions and their optimal avoidance have long been a challenge even with the space catalogue of moderate size. It will surely remain so with the catalogue of anticipated extreme size in the New Space Age. Here we present a web server, SpaceMap, which can solve conjunction assessment and optimal maneuver planning in (near) real-time. SpaceMap overcomes the challenging computational requirement of finding the best one among candidate maneuver alternatives by quickly evaluating the side-effects of secondary and tertiary conjunctions of each candidate. A tertiary conjunction, which is defined between an object-of-interest (OOI) and other fast-flying RSOs in the neighborhood, is of particular importance and is solved by taking advantage of computationally powerful, new geometric construct called the Voronoi diagram. Taking advantage of this feature, SpaceMap provides a variety of critical intelligence and optimization functions in timeline as well: e.g. to predict adversarial satellites that can monitor me while I will drive, to predict adversarial satellites that will be within, e.g., 10km of my asset, to predict adversarial satellites that can cause spectrum interference on my asset, to find the optimal data transmission route of my asset under predicted interference, to find the optimal data transmission schedule between pairs of cities through a constellation or through multiple constellations in multiple orbits, to find the optimal schedule to monitor a hot spot either on the ground or in space, etc. SpaceMap runs on AWS. Currently, SpaceMap uses the TLE data from Space-track. Incorporating other data types such as telemetry data (e.g. GPS), measurement data (e.g. radar), ADS-B, AIS, etc. is rather straightforward.
Date of Conference: September 27-20, 2022
Track: Conjunction/RPO