Debris Detection and Tracking Through On-Board LiDAR

The uncontrolled growth of space debris around the Earth is forcing satellites to increasingly disrupt their operations in order to prevent potentially catastrophic collisions. Currently, decisions on avoidance maneuvers are made using tracking data mainly obtained through ground-based sensors. As the uncertainties in these data largely affect maneuvering rates, solutions are needed to obtain higher quality observations and therefore decrease the rate of unnecessary maneuvers. This paper studies the possibility of enabling satellites to make autonomous observations of space objects at risk of collision by using onboard LiDAR sensors. As space-based observations do not suffer from diffractions and other problems related to the atmosphere, the proposed solution could be an effective means of obtaining more precise risk estimates. An orbital mechanics analysis of typical conjunction dynamics has been performed to derive the required sensor performance.