From Debris to Database: The Development of an Efficient Data Processing Chain for Space Situational Awareness Services

摘要

The heart of an effective space surveillance system lies in the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the space object catalogue. The process to populate and maintain this catalogue is not a trivial exercise and requires the manipulation of heterogeneous observation data to both perform orbit determination and correlation with objects already identified. The process should be sufficiently robust to allow the automatic incorporation of new objects as well as alerting for lost objects without a large overhead in terms of manpower and human interaction. The European Space Situational Awareness precursor programme has been developing such a system as part of its Space Surveillance element. This paper describes how the original design criteria were incorporated into the development of this system, as well as its incorporation into a modern service oriented architecture.