Optical Survey of the Tumble Rates of Retired GEO Satellites
Optical Survey of the Tumble Rates of Retired GEO Satellites
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发表时间：
2014-09
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通讯作者：
Christopher R. Binz;M. A. Davis;Bernard E. Kelm;C. Moore
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作者：
Christopher R. Binz;M. A. Davis;Bernard E. Kelm;C. Moore
摘要：海军研究实验室（NRL）和美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）在航天器之间的机器人交会对接方面取得了重大进展，但未受控制的驻留空间物体的长期姿态运动演变从未得到很好的表征。这项工作的目的是确定在地球同步轨道或其附近的退役卫星所表现出的运动。通过对观测到的反射光变曲线的周期性结构进行分析，确定了几颗退役卫星的估计翻滚率，这些卫星通常位于超级地球同步轨道弃星轨道。NRL在中途研究中心的1米望远镜被用来跟踪和观察这些物体，而太阳-卫星-观测者的几何形状是最有利的;通常在一到两个小时的时间内，在几周的时间内重复多次。通过用校准曝光处理每个图像，确定物体亮度随时间的相对表观大小。包括内部开发的软件在内的几种工具被用于亮度曲线的频率分析。结果表明，观测到的卫星通常表现出远低于每秒一度的概念边界情况下的翻滚率。当发现数据中存在谐波时，对卫星光学特性进行建模和模拟有助于解决模糊问题。这一过程是验证航天器的姿态历史是已知的，并发现协议。
Abstract : The Naval Research Lab (NRL) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have made significant progress toward robotic rendezvous and docking between spacecraft, however the long-term attitude motion evolution of uncontrolled resident space objects has never been well-characterized. This effort set out to identify the motion exhibited in retired satellites at or near geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Through analysis of the periodic structure of observed reflected light curves, estimated tumble rates were determined for several retired satellites, typically in a super-GEO disposal orbit. The NRL's 1-meter telescope at Mid- way Research Center was used to track and observe the objects while the sun-satellite-observer geometry was most favorable; typically over a one- to two-hour period, repeated multiple times over the course of weeks. By processing each image with calibration exposures, the relative apparent magnitude of the brightness of the object over time was determined. Several tools, including software developed internally, were used for frequency analysis of the brightness curves. Results show that observed satellites generally exhibit a tumble rate well below the notional bounding case of one degree per second. When harmonics are found to exist in the data, modeling and simulation of the optical characteristics of the satellite can help to resolve ambiguities. This process was validated on spacecraft for which an attitude history is known, and agreement was found.