Assessment of the close approach frequency and collision probability for satellites in different configurations of large constellations

The Earth orbital environment is drastically changing due to an intensification of the space activities. In particular, several projects of large constellations, proposed for the next years for communications purpose like global internet access, Internet of Things, or for Earth observations, will lead to the deployment of several thousands of new satellites at an unprecedented rate. It is a crucial challenge for space traffic management, which will deal with a great number of satellite conjunctions, potentially causing a collision with damaging consequences for the constellation itself and the space environment sustainability.In this paper, we investigate the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability for each referenced constellation. For this purpose, we compute the orbital evolution of satellites in different constellations during the lifecycle, from the deployment to the decommissioning, and we apply the CUBE algorithm and the Foster method to assess the collision probability with the background space debris population assuming a constant uncertainty in position. We show the variation of risk defined by the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability as a function of the proposed configuration. In particular, satellites of the Iridium and Kuiper constellation, but also satellite of the Telesat constellation on polar orbits are the most exposed at a collision. Moreover, the decommissioning phase contribute for a major part to the final cumulative collision probability.     

Study of highly perturbed spacecraft formation dynamics via approximation

This paper explores methods for approximating and analyzing the dynamics of highly perturbed spacecraft formations with an emphasis on computationally efficient approaches. This facilitates on-board computation or rapid preliminary mission design analysis. Perturbed formation dynamics are often approximated as linear time-varying (LTV) systems, for which Floquet theory can be used to analyze the degree of system instability. Furthermore, the angular momentum of the relative orbital state can be computed with the approximate dynamics to provide additional insight. A general methodology is developed first and then applied to the problem of unstable formation dynamics in asteroid orbits. Here the dominant perturbative effects due to low-order gravitational harmonics and solar radiation pressure are modeled. Numerical simulations validate the approach and illustrate the approximation accuracy achieved.     

A multi-stage regulation strategy of space manipulators with a free-swinging joint failure

To ensure tasks can be completed after a free-swinging joint failure occurs, a multi-stage regulation strategy of space manipulators is proposed. Considering all terms of the dynamics equation, an evaluation model of the regulation ability (EMRA) of active joints over the fault joint is established based on the fuzzy entropy. And then a multi-stage regulation strategy based on the EMRA is designed to regulate the fault joint. The strategy divides the regulation process into several stages, and select a certain active joint to regulative the fault joint in every stage. With this multi-stage regulation strategy, the fault joint can be regulated to the desired angle without huge torque on regulative joints. The simulation is carried out with a 7-DOF space manipulator, verifying the correctness and effectiveness of the multi-stage regulation strategy. The strategy has three advantages: Coriolis and centrifugal terms are both considered for the first time in selecting the regulative joint, making the selection result more in line with the actual regulation process; The influence of the model uncertainty is eliminated in establishing the EMRA, making the evaluation of regulative ability more precise; The fault joint is successfully regulated to the desired angle without huge torque on regulative joints.     

Orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamics of tethered solar power satellite

A new orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamic model of the tethered solar power satellite (Tethered SPS) is established based on absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The Hamilton’s equation of the system is derived by introducing generalized momentum through Legendre transformation. The correctness of the proposed model is verified by an example. The dynamic characteristics of the Tethered SPS are studied using the symplectic Runge-Kutta method. Simulation results show that the orbital radius and the total energy of the system are well preserved. The attitude of the system is unstable when the mass of the bus system is small. However, the attitude stability is dependent on some other parameters of the system, which requires further studies. It is also found that the average tether force/deformation can be roughly estimated by simplifying the solar panel as a particle. The proposed model can be used to study the orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamics and control problems.     

A robust object-based shadow detection method for cloud-free high resolution satellite images over urban areas and water bodies

Unwanted contrast in high resolution satellite images such as shadow areas directly affects the result of further processing in urban remote sensing images. Detecting and finding the precise position of shadows is critical in different remote sensing processing chains such as change detection, image classification and digital elevation model generation from stereo images. The spectral similarity between shadow areas, water bodies, and some dark asphalt roads makes the development of robust shadow detection algorithms challenging. In addition, most of the existing methods work on pixel-level and neglect the contextual information contained in neighboring pixels. In this paper, a new object-based shadow detection framework is introduced. In the proposed method a pixel-level shadow mask is built by extending established thresholding methods with a new C₄ index which enables to solve the ambiguity of shadow and water bodies. Then the pixel-based results are further processed in an object-based majority analysis to detect the final shadow objects. Four different high resolution satellite images are used to validate this new approach. The result shows the superiority of the proposed method over some state-of-the-art shadow detection method with an average of 96% in F-measure.     

一种卫星间跟瞄方向的控制策略与实现

进行自由空间的光通信或空间对抗，需要在卫星间实现精确的跟踪与瞄准。因为地面测控站的设置非常有限，指令与数据注入的范围受到很多限制，所以要求这种跟瞄在很多时候是无主控制状态下完成的。提出了一种利用在地面测控站的范围内向星上数管中心注入目标卫星、本体卫星的轨道参数，其它时间依靠自主导航飞行和GPS修正的方法，结合本体星的姿态测量、振动测量实现卫星瞄准指向的方位角与俯仰角的精确控制的方法，提高了在地面站无法注入指令与数据时卫星的捕获概率。通过仿真，将计算结果与卫星仿真工具软件STK的数据进行比较，结果一致。最后在嵌入式DSP平台上实现了这一策略。     

Ту-154М变稳飞机空中飞行模拟试验评述

依据Ту－１５４М变稳飞机的特点，主要进行了不同操纵器、不同控制律和不同显示画面的飞行试验研究。特别是通过中央杆和侧杆、电传系统不同控制律飞行品质特性之间、两种先进控制方案及不同显示方式的比较，不仅掌握了这方面的试飞技术和评定技术，还亲身体验到变稳飞机在发展仿真技术，新机预研及提高试飞员试飞技术和评定技术等方面的巨大作用。     

CBERS-1卫星IRMSS数据在城市绿地系统规划的应用

文章以CBERS -1卫星长沙幅IRMSS数据作为基础资料 ,利用PCI遥感图像处理软件对数据进行了预处理和应用实验。实验证明CBERS -1卫星的IRMSS数据图像信息丰富 ,可解译程度较高 ,能满足大中城市中等比例尺城市绿地系统规划遥感调查的要求     

改进的次时间最优控制

本文在[1][2]基础上进一步探讨了次时间最优控制的改进问题,深入地阐明了次时间最优控制的某些特性后,提出了一个新的改进的设计方法。按照这种方法设计控制系统,不但实用而且可以大幅度提高次时间最优控制的最优性。并用实例比较了各种方法,证明了本文提出的方法的优越性。本文提出的方法应用于工程设计,对于提高系统的最优性是非常有效的。