Design concepts for an open-source orbit domain information system for precision space domain awareness

2021年，约有3,500颗在轨运行的卫星。在今后五年中，随着由数千颗单独卫星组成的巨型星座的发射，这一数字将增加一个数量级。这将不可避免地增加在轨碰撞和解体事件的频率（自2010年以来平均每年约5次此类事件），产生无法控制的碎片，对所有轨道物体构成灾难性风险，目前的空间监视系统基于冷战时期的技术，不再适用（准确性差，潜伏期长，为军事应用而设计）。迫切需要一个自由和开源的现代信息系统，能够处理（即，估计和/或预测）成千上万个物体的轨迹，为国防、安全、民用、商业和公共部门的空间运营商提供空间域感知。UCL Geomatics部门是解决这个问题的理想场所。这项工作将利用和进一步的能力，伦敦大学学院轨道动力学图书馆，其特点是国家的最先进的算法，卫星导航在伦敦大学学院开发的。该项目的成果将是一个现代信息系统的设计概念，是为每个人。这一过程将涉及用户研究、开发和迭代设计，以创建一个建立在自由和开源软件运动和数据民主化原则基础上的系统。

In 2021, there were about 3,500 operational satellites on orbit. Over the next five years, this number will increase by an order of magnitude as mega-constellations, comprising thousands of individual satellites, are launched. This will inevitably increase the frequency of on-orbit collisions and breakup events (~5 such events annually on average since 2010) that generate uncontrollable fragments that pose a catastrophic risk to all orbital objects.Current space surveillance systems based on cold-war era technology and are no longer fit for purpose (poor accuracy, high latency, designed for military applications). There is an urgent need for a free and open-source modern information system with the ability to handle (i.e., estimate and/or predict) the trajectories of tens of thousands of objects in real-time to provide space domain awareness to space operators across the defence, security, civil, commercial, and public sectors. The UCL Geomatics department is an ideal place to work on this problem. The work will leverage and further the capabilities of the UCL Orbit Dynamics Library which features state-of-the-art algorithms for satellite navigation developed at UCL.The outcome of the project will be a design concept for a modern information system that is built for everyone. This process would involve user research, development, and iterative design to create a system that is established on the principles of free and open-source software movement and democratization of data.