Automating Satellite Collision Avoidance

martyb writes:

Automating Satellite Collision Avoidance

ESA[*] is preparing to use machine learning to protect satellites from the very real and growing danger of space debris.

The agency is developing a collision avoidance system that will automatically assess the risk and likelihood of in-space collisions, improve the decision making process on whether or not a maneuver is needed, and may even send the orders to at-risk satellites to get out of the way.

[...] "There is an urgent need for proper space traffic management, with clear communication protocols and more automation" says Holger Krag, Head of Space Safety at ESA.

"This is how air traffic control has worked for many decades, and now space operators need to get together to define automated maneuver coordination."

[...] Because of [the current] debris environment, it is now routine for operators in highly-trafficked orbits to spend time protecting their spacecraft from potentially catastrophic collisions with space junk, by performing "collision avoidance maneuvers"-basically sending the commands to their spacecraft to get out of the way.

Such maneuvers depend on validated, accurate and timely space surveillance data, provided for example by the US Space Surveillance Network, serving as the basis of "conjunction data messages," or CDMs, warning of possible close encounter between their spacecraft and another satellite or space object.

For a typical satellite in low-Earth orbit, hundreds of alerts are issued every week. For most, the risk of collision decreases as the week goes by and more orbital information is gathered, but for some the risk is deemed high enough that further action is required.

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