Architectural description of the Spanish Space Surveillance and Tracking System
- Paper number
IAC-17,A6,7,4,x41814
- Author
Mr. Jose Maria Hermoso, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Coauthor
Mrs. Ines Alonso Gómez, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Coauthor
Dr. Enrique Bustos Martín, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Coauthor
Ms. Cristina Pérez Hernández, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Coauthor
Ms. María Antonia Ramos Prada, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Juan Ureña Carazo, CDTI (Centre for the development of Industrial Technology), Spain
- Year
2017
- Abstract
This article presents a high level description of the architecture of the Spanish Space Surveillance and Tracking (S3T) system. The system aims at providing space surveillance and tracking (SST) services for institutional users and satellite operators in order to ensure the long-term availability of space infrastructures which are essential for the safety and security of worldwide citizens. The SST services provided comprise the collision risk assessment, the generation of conjunction data messages between objects in space, the detection and characterization of in-orbit fragmentations and collisions and the prediction, characterization and surveillance of uncontrolled re-entries of space objects into the Earth´s atmosphere. In this context, the S3T system is currently contributing to the provision of these services by means of a national SST operations centre (S3TOC) and a set of ground-based sensors which include telescopes, a satellite laser ranging station and a radar. From a functional point of view, the S3TOC is composed of a data processing function, a sensor planning and tasking function and a service provision function. The data processing function is devoted to sensor observations data processing, including correlation, orbit determination and maintenance of a catalogue of space objects observed by the S3T sensors. The sensor planning and tasking function is devoted to the planning and tasking of both survey and tracking sensors based on the observation needs derived from the data processing and service provision functions. Moreover, the S3T catalogue is composed of object data and orbital information derived from sensor observations and external sources (e.g. JSpOC, satellite ephemeris provided by satellite operators). Finally, the service provision function is devoted to the provision of SST services including collision warning, re-entry warning and fragmentation detection. The nominal operations were initiated on the 1st of July 2016. One of the major achievements of the S3TOC to date is the creation of an autonomous catalogue based on observations from the S3T sensor network complemented with external data sources. For instance, this catalogue allows for the generation of custom conjunction detection messages (CDMs) which complement the service provided by other international SST services. The processing chain requires a high level of automation and complex optimization of simultaneous processes to provide efficient and accurate products which comply with the SST user needs. All in all, the S3T system is foreseen to be a fruitful contribution to the European space surveillance and tracking framework following the European Parliament and Council decision 541/2014/EU.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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