Conjunction Screening and Collision Avoidance Maneuver Strategies for Low Thrust Spacecraft
Abstract
The number of objects in space has raised concern about the risk of operational satellites and debris colliding. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network currently tracks more than 27,000 objects; of these 7,500 are active payloads and 19,500 are debris. Satellite operators follow conjunction analysis procedures to ensure safe operations in this congested environment, and it is not rare for operators to have only the systems tool kit (STK) as a conjunction analysis tool. In this case, a common approach is to perform conjunction screening using the two-line elements (TLE) catalog. Even though it is the easiest and fastest way to perform this process in STK, NASA does not recommend this practice due to TLEs low accuracy. Instead, NASA recommends using the special perturbation (SP) catalog developed for this purpose. Yet, the use of the SP catalog in STK is less straightforward than it is for TLE. This work proposes a program that allows the use of the full SP catalog for the screening process in STK. In the conjunction analysis process, an action is required when risk of collision exceeds an acceptable limit. For low-thrust satellites, it is challenging to select and perform a conjunction avoidance maneuver (CAM) that significantly reduces the collision risk. Tangential CAM and drag maneuvers are tested for the ICEYE satellites, a small electric-propulsion SAR satellite. Results show these two approaches are feasible for the ICEYE case, but some technical concerns are identified.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1212900
Entities
People
- Giuliano F. Batista De Oliveira
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School