Daylight Measurement Acquisition of Defunct Resident Space Objects Combining Active and Passive Electro-Optical Systems

Rodriguez-Villamizar, Julian; Schildknecht, Thomas

doi:10.1109/tgrs.2022.3179719

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…SLR has been successfully used by multiple teams for many years to track space debris as well (Greene et al, 2002, Smith, 2006, Sang and Smith, 2012, Zhang et al, 2012, Kirchner et al, 2013, Zhongping et al, 2017, Steindorfer et al, 2020, Zhang, 2021. Accurate information about the orbits of space debris is needed to determine their attitude or spin dynamics (Kucharski et al, 2014, Silha et al, 2016, Schildknecht and Silha, 2017, Rodriguez-Villamizar and Schildknecht, 2022, Phipps et al, 2012, Scharring et al, 2021. Laser ranging activities in Poland are aimed at joining the countries involved in space debris tracking (Lejba et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Orbit Determination of Chinese Rocket Bodies from the Picosecond Full-Rate Laser Measurements

Lejba

2023

Artificial Satellites

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In this paper, the results of the orbit determination of two Chinese rocket bodies from low earth orbit (LEO) regime based on the picosecond laser measurements provided by one laser sensor are presented. A new approach was implemented that involved using a set of single laser measurements known as full-rate measurements instead of normal points. The computation strategy was applied using three different scenarios, and several key parameters such as root mean square (RMS), RMS of position (RMSPOS), RMS of velocity (RMSVEL), and alert time were determined. The results obtained indicate that the most optimal solution is to use short orbital arcs that are 24 h long. In this case, the average RMSPOS is approximately 345–530 m, the average RMSVEL is approximately 1 m/s, and the average arc RMS is approximately 3.7–7.0 cm. The determined alert time parameter, which refers to the time during which the laser observation of a given object should be repeated, is on average approximately 19.5 h. If longer orbital arcs, such as 2 days or more, are used, RMSPOS and RMSVEL actually reach the level of single centimeters and single millimeters per second, respectively. However, the arc RMS increases significantly to at least decimeters and even above 1 m in some cases. This suggests that the long arc approach is not a favorable solution. In addition, an interesting discovery has been presented that some Chinese launchers are equipped likely with the laser retroreflectors that can easily reflect the laser beam.

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