STRATEGIES ADDRESSING THE SEARCH, ACQUISITION, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF UNKNOWN GEO SPACE OBJECTS
- Paper number
IAC-08.A6.1.11
- Author
Dr. Thomas Kelecy, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Moriba Jah, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Chris Sabol, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Paul Kervin, Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
As telescope systems achieve greater photometric sensitivity and metric accuracy, the number of detected and tracked objects in deep space orbits around the Earth is likely to increase exponentially. The Pan-STARRS 1 (PS1) telescope, just now coming on line atop Mount Haleakala on the Island of Maui, will provide 19-24 visual magnitude sensitivity and sub arc-second metric accuracy when in sidereal track mode. The PS1 system is being funded and developed collaboratively by the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). As a consequence, AFRL is being given observing time on the system. One of the goals is to determine a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) that accommodates the expected density of objects that will be detected, primarily in the Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) regime. The challenge is to adopt a survey and tracking scheme that does the best job of sorting through the data that are collected (both astrometry and photometry) for all of the detected objects in a given set of frames, correlating the tracks of those detected objects, performing and initial orbit determination (IOD) on correlation candidate objects, and performing follow up tracking on those objects to successfully characterize them. The analysis presented here is limited to objects likely to be detected in the GEO orbit regime by PS1. It also assumes space catalog correlated objects have been removed from the images, so all that remain are unknown objects (e.g. debris). The IOD, state refinement via Differential Correction, and subsequent prediction performance is analyzed for a specified range of GEO orbit parameters in an attempt to characterize the error covariance distribution. The propagated covariance can be used as a metric to assess the optimum tracking and search strategies that might need to be employed for object re-acquisition, as well as assist in the correlation of tracks via the implementation of the Mahalanobis Distance. The detectability of the objects, in terms of likely sizes, materials and phase angles, are factored into the analysis. A Monte Carlo simulation is used to validate the results, in terms of propagated radial, along-track and cross-track errors, and errors mapped into the sensor field-of-view reference frame. The goal is to define a prototype tracking strategy that can be applied to PS1 observing when used in the surveillance mode that will optimize object detection and orbit characterization.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.A6.1.11.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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