In-Orbit Optical SSA Using Proliferated LEO Satellites for Space Traffic Monitoring: An Analytical Framework

Abstract

The increase in space activities has increased the risks of space debris generation, affecting space safety and sustainability. Traditional space situational awareness (SSA) relies on single star trackers and ground-based tracking facilities. There is limited discussion on the use of in-orbit optical sensors on low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations for SSA, despite their importance for efficient space traffic management systems. In this paper, we aim to address this important challenge. We first present a new analytical system model for utilizing LEO satellite constellations for in-orbit SSA. We then develop a method to evaluate and analyze such a system. We also propose a Poisson expected revisit period algorithm and introduce the period of equivalent orbital distributions to reveal the relationship between revisit period and geometric variables, with insightful results based on real-world and custom satellite constellations. Experiments on real-world constellation show that the representative Poisson expected revisit period ranges from 0.4 days to 5.7 days for targets whose apogee altitude ranges from 552 km to 650 km, while requiring a per-case computation time of 0.4 s to 4.8 s. Our work can inform the future design of in-orbit and onboard computing systems for SSA, such as space object detection and space traffic monitoring systems.