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Projecte llegit

Títol: Initial Orbital Determination of Space Debris Through Non-ranging Monostatic Radar

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: RODRÍGUEZ DEL RÍO, ÓSCAR

Departament: MAT

Títol: Initial Orbital Determination of Space Debris Through Non-ranging Monostatic Radar

Data inici oferta: 19-01-2026     Data finalització oferta: 19-09-2026


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    GR ENG SIS TELECOMUN
    GR ENG SIST AEROESP
    GR ENG TELEMÀTICA
Tipus: Individual
 
Lloc de realització: EETAC
 
Paraules clau:
Orbit determination, Space debris, Numerical simulation
 
Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
The increasing presence of space debris poses a significant threat to operational satellites and space missions. Accurate orbit determination of these debris objects is crucial for collision avoidance and effective space traffic management. This study focuses on the development and implementation of numerical methods and orbit estimation algorithms. Challenges related to high uncertainty and limitations in observing small debris objects are addressed, with proposed solutions to enhance orbit determination accuracy through data fusion from multiple sensors and optimization techniques. The results of this study provide valuable tools for predicting the trajectories of space debris and offer strategies to mitigate the risks of collisions in Earth's orbital environment.

Language: Catalan, Spanish or English
 
Overview (resum en anglès):
Space debris are becoming an ever growing concern for current and future space missions. In this context, radar detection systems are most optimal for detecting space debris at low Earth orbit, the most common altitude at which space debris are found. This thesis implements and evaluates the already existing Initial Orbit Determination from Angular and Doppler-shift measurements method exclusively through monostatic CW-Doppler radars. The aim of the thesis is to test the performance of the method under different conditions, such as in the presence of stochastic noise, multiple orbital parameters and various ground-station locations.

A Monte Carlo simulation is run with 100,000 trails per station, with 101 total noise levels, two orbital inclinations (65 degrees and 82 degrees) and three different ground stations, with purely Keplerian propagation. Throughout testing, the median position error at maximum noise has not exceeded 4.2 km, and the median velocity error has not exceeded 0.2 percent of the velocity of the simulated space debris orbits. The median position and velocity error has been found to scale linearly with noise. Moreover, a correlation has been found with the latitude of the ground stations and the inclination of the simulated space debris.

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