In this paper an investigation is carried out regarding the motion of objects in near-Earth orbit that have a high probability of being identified as re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. If an object is one of two or more satellites tethered together, this object's motion will deviate significantly from the traditional Keplerian-like motion of a single untethered body, due to the tension force in the tether. Consequently, classical techniques used to identify and predict the motion of orbiting objects will incorrectly predict the path of a tethered body. If the undetected tether force is large enough, an orbit determination procedure may interpret the object to be on course to re-enter when it actually is not, or vice-versa. Indeed, even a method that can estimate the tether force may wrongly assess the situation if libration of the tethered pair is not included in the filter model. In this study it is determined what factors cause tethered bodies to behave so differently than expected, and how significant these factors must be to cause a discrepancy regarding re-entry. A successful re-entry identification methodology must take all of these factors into account.
展开▼
