An ontological architecture for orbital debris data

Abstract

Abstract. The orbital debris problem presents an opportunity for inter-agency and international cooperation toward the mutually beneficial goals of debris prevention, mitigation, remediation, and improved space situational awareness (SSA). Achieving these goals requires sharing orbital debris and other SSA data. Toward this, I present an ontological architecture for the orbital debris domain, taking steps in the creation of an orbital debris ontology (ODO). The purpose of this ontological system is to (I) represent general orbital debris and SSA domain knowledge, (II) structure, and standardize where needed, orbital data and terminology, and (III) foster semantic interoperability and data-sharing. In doing so I hope to (IV) contribute to solving the orbital debris problem, improving peaceful global SSA, and ensuring safe space travel for future generations.Keywords. Orbital debris; space debris; astroinformatics; informatics; ontology; ontological engineering; space situational awareness; semantics; data sharing SYNOPSIS / EXTENDED ABSTRACTThe orbital debris problem presents an opportunity for inter-agency and international cooperation toward the mutually beneficial goals of: Debris detection, identification, tracking and orbit propagation  Orbital debris prevention, mitigation and remediation  Increased Space Situational Awareness (SSA), and thus improved capacity for planetary defense, and thus…  Avoidance and minimization of damage to existing and future operational space-borne systems  The safe navigation into and through LEO, MEO, GEO and beyond; the preservation of safe space travel for future generations It specifically offers an opportunity for space organizations share their orbital debris data in supporting and achieving these goals. Toward these goals I propose an ontological framework whose aims, in turn, are: A. To represent the relevant knowledge and entities in the orbital debris domain B. Foster data-sharing among orbital debris information systems (databases, space object catalogs, etc.), and perhaps form terminological and other standards in the relevant communities The representation of orbital knowledge, data, and other entities (A) are tasks that can be accomplished within artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering, formal ontology, and ontology development and engineering. The idea is to explore whether ontology, as a partial approach, can contribute in solving the orbital debris problem by helping to improve SSA, in part via data-exchange and fusion. This proposal broadly calls for the creation of a data-sharing and interoperability (if not integration) system, of which ontologies can be a part, for orbital debris data, and potentially an international joint orbital debris catalog. Toward this, international parties are to share their orbital debris data.Communities and Domains of Interest: space situational awareness, aerospace computing, astrodynamics, (astro)informatics, orbital/space debris, ontology engineering, formal ontology, applied ontology, knowledge representation and ...

An ontology for satellite databases

“…This section discusses a domain reference ontology effort by the author that may be used by any satellite database, including the UCSSD. In all, this work is part of the orbital space domain ontology project [6] [8], conceived in early form in 2011 and first published in [4] (Rovetto 2015). The main production goal is one or more ontologies for astronautics, orbital debris, SSA and the space domain.…”

Harnessing ontology and machine learning for RSO classification

“…Ruttenberg et al ( 2015 ) classifies RSO hierarchically by reasoning on an RSO hierarchy using probability programming, and deduces the features needed for further classifications to drive RSO observation; 50 satellites have been chosen from UCS_Satellite 3 to validate feasibility of the method, however, the competence of the model and completeness of knowledge in the model need to be further validated. Taxonomies of RSO are also contained in domain ontologies, such as in Rovetto ( 2016 ), Rovetto and Kelso ( 2016 ), Cox et al ( 2016 ).…”

“…Models describing characteristics of RSO have been studied quite extensively. There are many models that specify the characteristics of different types of RSO from different perspectives, such as models of space object (Han et al 2014 ; Henderson 2014 ; Howard et al 2015 ; Poole and Murray-Krezan 2015 ) and debris (Rovetto 2016 ), material density distribution model of space debris (Opiela 2009 ). The distinct characteristics of a specific type of RSO can be used as internal knowledge of RSO to distinguish the type of RSO from others, for example, photometric signatures can be used to classify rocket body and communication satellite (Howard et al 2015 ).…”

“…The distinct characteristics of a specific type of RSO can be used as internal knowledge of RSO to distinguish the type of RSO from others, for example, photometric signatures can be used to classify rocket body and communication satellite (Howard et al 2015 ). There are also domain ontologies of RSO, which studies specification of RSO and relations between RSO and their relative entities, such as Rovetto ( 2016 ), Rovetto and Kelso ( 2016 ), Cox et al ( 2016 ).…”

“…The purpose of the authors is to model a task ontology for the classifications of RSO named OntoStar. There are domain ontologies about RSO (Rovetto 2016 ; Rovetto and Kelso 2016 ; Cox et al 2016 ) and databases of RSO such as Norad_Catalog and UCS_Satellite, which can be reused and extended by OntoStar. Relevant concepts are extracted from the domain ontologies.…”