Properties of the high area-to-mass ratio space debris population at high altitudes

In the framework of its space debris research activities ESA established an optical survey program to study the space debris environment at high altitudes, in particular in the geostationary ring and in the geostationary transfer orbit region. The Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB) performs these surveys on behalf of ESA using ESA’s 1-m telescope in Tenerife. Regular observations were started in 1999 and are continued during about 120–140 nights per year. Results from these surveys revealed a substantial amount of space debris at high altitudes in the size range from 0.1 to 1 m. Several space debris populations with different dynamical properties were identified in the geostationary ring. During the searches for debris in the geostationary transfer orbit region a new population of objects in unexpected orbits, where no potential progenitors exist, was found. The orbital periods of these objects are clustered around one revolution per day; the eccentricities, however, are scattered between 0 and 0.6. By following-up some of these objects using the ESA telescope and AIUB’s 1-m telescope in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, it was possible to study the properties of this new population. One spectacular finding from monitoring the orbits over time spans of days to months is the fact that these objects must have extreme area-to-mass ratios, which are by several orders of magnitudes higher than for ‘normal-type’ debris. This in turn supports the hypothesis that the new population actually is debris generated in or near the geostationary ring and which is in orbits with periodically varying eccentricity and inclination due to perturbations by solar radiation pressure. In order to further study the nature of these debris, multi-color and temporal photometry (light curves) were acquired with the Zimmerwald telescope. The light curves show strong variations over short time intervals, including signals typical for specular reflections. Some objects exhibit distinct periodic variations with periods ranging from 10 to several 100 s. All this is indicative for objects with complicated shapes and some highly reflective surfaces.     

Orbit improvement for GTO objects using follow-up observations

The Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern was and is conducting several search campaigns for space debris in the geostationary ring (GEO) and the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). First tests to build up a catalogue of satellites and space debris were performed recently. As the discovery observations of an object usually cover a time interval of a few minutes only, the first orbits determined are assumed to be circular. For GEO objects a circular orbit is a rather good approximation. This is certainly not the case for GTO objects. Nevertheless, a circular orbit seems to be an acceptable approximation for a short time interval around the observations. The first orbits can be used to acquire follow-up observations, which allow the determination of elliptical orbits. The maximum allowed time span between the detection and the follow-up for a successful recovery is found using simulated GTO orbits and observations. Further follow-up observations are simulated in order to study the orbit improvement process and the required force model. The accuracy of orbits needed to build up a catalogue is studied. The simulations are compared to the results achieved with observations acquired by the 1 m telescope on Tenerife.     

The situation in the geostationary ring

For more than 25 years, the practice of reorbiting of a geostationary satellite at the end of its mission in order to protect the geostationary orbit (GEO) environment has been recommended and performed by a number of operators. In recent years, an internationally recognised re-orbiting altitude has been defined by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC). Based on orbital data contained in the DISCOS database, the situation on the geostationary ring is analysed. In January 2004, from 1036 catalogued objects passing through the geostationary region, 340 are controlled within their allocated longitude slots, 395 are drifting above, below or through GEO, and 140 are in a libration orbit. In the periods 1997–2003, 103 spacecraft reached their end of life; 34 were reorbited in compliance with the IADC recommendation, 35 were reorbited below the minimum recommended altitude, and 34 were abandoned without any end-of-life disposal manoeuvre. Apart from these catalogued objects, the ESA 1-m telescope has observed many smaller debris (down to 10–15 cm) in this orbital region representing a collision risk for GEO spacecraft which is difficult to quantify.     

利用GPS对地球静止轨道卫星定轨的可行性

总结了几种利用 GPS对地球静止轨道卫星定轨的方法 ,并且对仅仅接收 GPS星发射的信号来定轨这种方法进行了计算论证。得出了 GPS星在一个计算周期 (2 4 h)内对于静止卫星的可利用性 ,比较了不同条件下的可利用性。通过对可利用性分析 ,提出了一种利用 GPS对静止卫星定轨的方法     

On prediction of re-entry time of an upper stage from GTO

The evolution of objects in geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is determined by a complex interplay of atmospheric drag and luni-solar gravity. These orbits are highly eccentric (eccentricity >0.7) and have large variations in velocity and perturbations during a revolution. The periodic changes in the perigee altitudes of these orbits are mainly due to the gravitational perturbations of the Sun and the Moon. The re-entry time of the objects in such orbits is sensitive to the initial conditions. The aim of this paper is to study the re-entry time of the cryogenic stage of the Indian geo-synchronous launch vehicle, GSLV-F04/CS, which has been decaying since 2 September 2007 from initial orbit with eccentricity equal to 0.706. Two parameters, initial eccentricity and ballistic coefficient, are chosen for optimal estimation. It is known that the errors are more in eccentricity for the observations based on two line elements (TLEs). These two parameters are computed with response surface method using a genetic algorithm for the selected eight different zones, based on rough linear variation of the mean apogee altitude during 200 days orbit evolution. The study shows that the GSLV-F04/CS will re-enter between 5 December 2010 and 7 January 2011. The methodology is also applied to study the re-entry of six decayed objects (cryogenic stages of GSLV and Molniya satellites). Good agreement is noticed between the actual and the predicted re-entry times. The absolute percentage error in re-entry prediction time for all the six objects is found to be less than 7%. The present methodology is being adopted at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) to predict the re-entry time of GSLV-F04/CS.     

基于偏心率和倾角矢量的双星隔离策略

针对中国地球静止轨道双星共位的需要, 研究了双星共位的工程实现问题, 提出了一种使用偏心率矢量和倾角矢量联合隔离实现双星共位的方法. 给出了基于偏心率矢量和倾角矢量联合隔离的基本方法、约束方程和工程实现的控制策略, 并通过模拟计算和工程实际应用情况, 验证了该方法的正确性.      

A new algorithm for optical observations of space debris with the TAROT telescopes

Since 2004, we observe satellites in the geostationary orbit with a network of robotic ground based fully automated telescopes called TAROT. One of them is located in France and the second at ESO, La Silla, Chile. The system processes the data in real time. Its wide field of view is useful for the discovery, the systematic survey and for the tracking of both catalogued and un-catalogued objects. We present a new source extraction algorithm based on morphological mathematic, which has been tested and is currently under implementation in the standard pipeline. Using this method, the observation strategy will correlate the measurements of the same object on successive images and give better detection rate and false alarm rate than the previous one. The overall efficiency and quality of the survey of the geostationary orbit has drastically improved and we can now detect satellites and debris in different orbits like Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). Results obtained in real conditions with TAROT are presented.     

卫星轨道保持的一类控制模型

地球赤道静止卫星希望其定点位置固定不变 ;采用轨迹重复的近地轨道的对地遥感卫星 ,需要具有固定的地面轨迹位置 ;如果这类遥感卫星还同时采用太阳同步轨道 ,则还要求降交点地方平太阳时固定不变。上述这三种情况虽然其物理机制各不相同 ,但其变化及控制过程可以抽象出一种共同的模型。文章首先给出这个统一的模型并对其进行讨论 ,然后将结果应用到所述的三种具体情况     

地球静止卫星电推进轨道保持策略优化

针对电推力器控制弧段长、传统轨道保持计算常用的脉冲假设不能适用的问题,提出了静止卫星轨道保持的平运动动力学模型和长期控制策略优化方法。由于轨道保持控制的是平均轨道要素,文章提出了一种基于春分点轨道要素的高精度平根外推动力学模型,与STK-HPOP模型比对高度吻合;提出了综合考虑轨道东西和南北控制的耦合控制优化模型,设计了基于序列二次规划的优化求解方法。仿真算例中研究了二推力器配置的静止卫星4周轨道保持问题,仿真结果表明,该方法可以优化长期轨道保持控制策略。     

Astrometric positioning and orbit determination of geostationary satellites

In the project titled “Astrometric Positioning of Geostationary Satellite” (PASAGE), carried out by the Real Instituto y Observatorio de la Armada (ROA), optical observation techniques were developed to allow satellites to be located in the geostationary ring with angular accuracies of up to a few tenths of an arcsec. These techniques do not necessarily require the use of large telescopes or especially dark areas, and furthermore, because optical observation is a passive method, they could be directly applicable to the detection and monitoring of passive objects such as space debris in the geostationary ring.     

共享星位式静止轨道卫星群构形简析

共享星位式静止轨道卫星群（Ｃｏ－ｌｏｃａｔｅｄＧｅｏｓｔａｔｉｏｎａｒｙＳａｔｅｌｉｔｅｓ）共占一个星位以完成对地通信任务。在这种共享星位的方式下每颗卫星间的位置差异很小,整个卫星群在经度和纬度方向上的允许偏差通常小于±０．１°。在这个范围内必须对卫星精确控制。经典的Ｃ－Ｗ方程形式简单,便于分析,但它的结果不能精确地反映卫星的相对运动,因而不宜用来研究共位式静止卫星群的几何构形及其控制。作者给出了一组修正的Ｃ－Ｗ方程以弥补其不足;并且根据卫星群偏心率与倾角综合的分离思想,讨论了两种策略,使得卫星群的构形可通过每个成员的轨道要素简单表出。适当调整每颗卫星的轨道要素可以保持卫星群的构形在空间不变,或者对地（近赤道观测站）不变。     

Radiative forces and LAGEOS' orbit

The orbit analysis of LAGEOS satellite has resulted into the discovery and/or reassessment of several very small sources of perturbation on satellite orbits. The analysis of orbital arcs of duration ranging from one month to several years has revealed that perturbative effects are present, having unpredicted long-term or secular components down to the 10⁻¹² m/s² acceleration level. It was soon realized that those perturbations have a non-gravitational origin.

In recent years, we have devoted some effort to the physical modelling of radiative perturbations, caused by momentum exchanges with an appropriate radiative field, and have considered their potential role in the analysis of LAGEOS orbit residuals. These perturbations include: (i) direct solar radiation pressure; (ii) radiation pressure from the Earth's emitted/reflected/diffused radiation flux; (iii) the so-called thermal thrust force.

The main results of this work are reviewed, discussing its relationships with models developed by other research groups. In particular, we present a list of the physical processes which still appear to need more detailed and realistic modelling to reach a better understanding of LAGEOS dynamics at the 10⁻¹² m/s² level.     

Recent Progress of Fengyun Meteorology Satellites

After nearly 50 years of development, Fengyun (FY) satellite ushered in its best moment. China has become one of the three countries or units in the world (China, USA, and EU) that maintain both polar orbit and geostationary orbit satellites operationally. Up to now, there are 17 Fengyun (FY) satellites that have been launched successfully since 1988. There are two FY polar orbital satellites and four FY geostationary orbit satellites operate in the space to provide a huge amount of the earth observation data to the user communities. The FY satellite data has been applied not only in the meteorological but also in agriculture, hydraulic engineering, environmental, education, scientific research and other fields. More recently, three meteorological satellites have been launched within the past two years. They are FY-4A on 11 December 2016, FY-3D on 15 November 2017 and FY-2H on 5 June 2018. This paper introduces the current status of FY meteorological satellites and data service. The updates of the latest three satellites have been addressed. The characteristics of their payloads on-boarding have been specified in details and the benefit fields have been anticipated separately.      

The classical Laplace plane as a stable disposal orbit for geostationary satellites

The classical Laplace plane is a frozen orbit, or equilibrium solution for the averaged dynamics arising from Earth oblateness and lunisolar gravitational perturbations. The pole of the orbital plane of uncontrolled GEO satellites regress around the pole of the Laplace plane at nearly constant inclination and rate. In accordance with Friesen et al. (1993), we show how this stable plane can be used as a robust long-term disposal orbit. The current graveyard regions for end-of-life retirement of GEO payloads, which is several hundred kilometers above GEO depending on the spacecraft characteristics, cannot contain the newly discovered high area-to-mass ratio debris population. Such objects are highly susceptible to the effects of solar radiation pressure exhibiting dramatic variations in eccentricity and inclination over short periods of time. The Laplace plane graveyard, on the contrary, would trap this debris and would not allow these objects to rain down through GEO. Since placing a satellite in this inclined orbit can be expensive, we discuss some alternative disposal schemes that have acceptable cost-to-benefit ratios.     

空间太阳能电站地球同步拉普拉斯轨道动力学特性

现有关于空间太阳能电站(SpaceSolarPowerStation,SSPS)轨道动力学的研究中,均将其放置于地球静止轨道（GeostationaryOrbit,GEO〖BF〗）,然而这并非最优的工作轨道。文章提出了一种优于ＧＥＯ的地球同步拉普拉斯（GeosynchronousLaplacePlane,GLP）轨道。首先,建立了轨道运动模型及影响轨道运动的摄动模型,包括地球非球形引力摄动、日月引力摄动、太阳光压力摄动及微波反冲力摄动;然后,提出了评估空间太阳能电站轨道的3个指标：接收功率、轨道适用性和安全性,并据此分析了GLP轨道相对于ＧＥＯ的优势。最后,给出了数值仿真算例。结果表明：在发电功率大致相同且满足供电需求的情况下,工作在GLP上的SSPS每年大约能节省用于轨道保持的燃料364534kg。     

基于GNSS的高轨卫星定位技术研究

利用全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)进行导航定位具有全球、全天候、实时和高精度的优点,应用于高地球轨道(HEO)卫星的定位,能够提供精确的轨道和姿态确定,并且可以克服目前主要利用地面测控系统对HEO卫星进行定位的设备复杂、投资高等缺点,使得自主导航成为可能.本文对利用GNSS的高轨卫星定位相关技术进行了研究,分析了单一GNSS系统和多个GNSS组合系统的卫星可见性、动态性和几何精度因子(GDOP).通过仿真分析表明,利用组合GNSS系统并通过提高GNSS接收机灵敏度的方法,可以解决GNSS进行HEO卫星定位的相关问题,并能保证HEO卫星定位精度的要求.      

A universal on-orbit servicing system used in the geostationary orbit

The geostationary orbit (GEO), a unique satellite orbit of the human beings, is a very precious orbit resource. However, the continuous increasing of GEO debris makes the GEO orbit more and more crowded. Moreover, the failures of GEO spacecrafts will result in large economic cost and other bad impacts. In this paper, we proposed a space robotic servicing system, and developed key pose (position and orientation) measurement and control algorithm. Firstly, the necessity of orbit service in GEO was analyzed. Then, a servicing concept for GEO non-cooperative targets was presented and a universal space robotic servicing system was designed. The system has a 2-DOF docking mechanism, a 7-DOF redundant manipulator and a set of stereo vision, in addition to the traditional subsystems of a spacecraft. This system can serve most existing satellites in GEO, not requiring specially designed objects for grappling and measuring on the target. The servicing contents include: (a) visual inspecting; (b) target tracking, approaching and docking; (c) ORUs (Orbital Replacement Units) replacement; (d) Malfunctioned mechanism deploying; (e) satellites life extension by taking over its control, or re-orbiting the abandoned satellites. As an example, the servicing mission of a malfunctioned GEO satellite with three severe mechanical failures was designed and simulated. The results showed the validity and flexibility of the proposed system.     

Evolution of the orbital elements for objects with high area-to-mass ratios in geostationary transfer orbits

A new population of uncatalogued objects in geosynchronous Earth orbits (GEO), with a mean motion of about 1 rev/day and eccentricities up to 0.6, has been identified recently. The first observations of this new type of objects were acquired in the framework of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) search for space debris in GEO and the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) using the ESA 1-m telescope on Tenerife. Earlier studies have postulated that the perturbations due to the solar radiation pressure can lead to such large eccentricities for GEO objects with a high area-to-mass ratio (A/M). The simulations showed that the eccentricities of GEO objects with large A/M exhibit periodic variations with periods of about one year and amplitudes depending on the value of A/M. The findings of these studies could be confirmed by observations from the ESA 1-m telescope on Tenerife.     

An active debris removal parametric study for LEO environment remediation

Recent analyses on the instability of the orbital debris population in the low Earth orbit (LEO) region and the collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 have reignited interest in using active debris removal (ADR) to remediate the environment. There are, however, monumental technical, resource, operational, legal, and political challenges in making economically viable ADR a reality. Before a consensus on the need for ADR can be reached, a careful analysis of its effectiveness must be conducted. The goal is to demonstrate the need and feasibility of using ADR to better preserve the future environment and to explore different operational options to maximize the benefit-to-cost ratio. This paper describes a new sensitivity study on using ADR to stabilize the future LEO debris environment. The NASA long-term orbital debris evolutionary model, LEGEND, is used to quantify the effects of several key parameters, including target selection criteria/constraints and the starting epoch of ADR implementation. Additional analyses on potential ADR targets among the existing satellites and the benefits of collision avoidance maneuvers are also included.     

Improved orbit predictions using two-line elements

The density of orbital space debris constitutes an increasing environmental challenge. There are two ways to alleviate the problem: debris mitigation and debris removal. This paper addresses collision avoidance, a key aspect of debris mitigation. We describe a method that contributes to achieving a requisite increase in orbit prediction accuracy for objects in the publicly available two-line element (TLE) catalog. Batch least-squares differential correction is applied to the TLEs. Using a high-precision numerical propagator, we fit an orbit to state vectors derived from successive TLEs. We then propagate the fitted orbit further forward in time. These predictions are validated against precision ephemeris data derived from the international laser ranging service (ILRS) for several satellites, including objects in the congested sun-synchronous orbital region. The method leads to a predicted range error that increases at a typical rate of 100 m per day, approximately a 10-fold improvement over individual TLE’s propagated with their associated analytic propagator (SGP4). Corresponding improvements for debris trajectories could potentially provide conjunction analysis sufficiently accurate for an operationally viable collision avoidance system based on TLEs only.