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  • A Fast, Modular Approach to Object Propagation and Collision Analysis

    Paper number

    IAC-13,A6,P,14.p1,x18052

    Author

    Mr. Marek Möckel, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Patrick Thomsen, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Christopher Kebschull, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Sven Kevin Flegel, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Johannes Gelhaus, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Vitali Braun, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Mr. Jonas Radtke, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Dr. Carsten Wiedemann, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany

    Coauthor

    Prof. Peter Voersmann, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

    Year

    2013

    Abstract
    Recent long-term simulations of the space debris environment predict that collision
    fragments will become the major source of orbital debris on low Earth orbits in the
    future. To accurately assess potential hazards to spacecraft it becomes even more
    important to calculate collision risks in such simulations. For this purpose, various
    models exist that estimate collision probabilities of certain objects within a given
    population. These populations often include millions of objects which have to be
    propagated over time spans of several decades for long-term simulations. The high
    computation times required for these calculations are even further increased by large numbers of
    Monte Carlo runs that are required to account for randomly triggered events. Since
    all object positions of a population can be calculated independently from each other,
    propagation algorithms can be accelerated by implementing them on massively parallel
    hardware architectures such as graphics processing units (GPUs). This has been shown in
    previous research. For fast collision detection among large object numbers, various
    methods exist which pre-sort possible collision partners using tree-based data
    structures. To efficiently combine GPU-based object propagation and post-processing
    algorithms such as collision detection, a software architecture is required that
    allows both components to directly interface with each other and keeps time-expensive
    data transfers between CPU and GPU at a minimum.
    In this paper, a fast algorithm for collision analysis is introduced
    that works on large object populations. It is embedded into a plugin-based software
    architecture that has been specifically designed for space debris object propagation
    and analysis. Its modular structure allows for tight coupling of orbital propagation and
    post-processing algorithms both on the CPU and the GPU. The propagator itself is
    designed in a fashion that models of perturbation forces can be interchanged depending
    on speed and accuracy requirements as well as available hardware platforms.
    Abstract document

    IAC-13,A6,P,14.p1,x18052.brief.pdf

    Manuscript document

    (absent)