Orbit Determination Performance Improvements for High Area-to-Mass Ratio Space Object Tracking Using an Adaptive Gaussian Mixtures Estimation Algorithm

Abstract : Inactive high area-to-mass ratio (HAMR) resident space objects (RSOs) near the geosynchronous orbit (GEO) regime pose a hazard to active GEO RSOs. The combination of solar radiation pressure (SRP) and solar and lunar gravitational perturbations cause variations in the orbit parameters of the inactive RSOs. The high A/m nature of these objects results in greater sensitivity to the SPR reflected in mean motion, inclination and eccentricity. The subsequent drift with respect to Earth-based tracking sites, combined with a temporal orientation agility with respect to the sun, results in an inability to successfully reacquire many of these RSOs as they transition through periods of days to weeks out of view observing sites.

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