Analysis of Space debris collision risk using KARISMA for KOMPSAT Satellite series

Abstract

Korea has successfully launched multipurpose satellites such as KOMPSAT (KOrea Multi Purpose SATellite) in low Earth orbit (LEO) since 1999. Thus far, KOMPSAT-2, KOMPSAT-3, and KOMPSAT-5 are in operation, and KOMPSAT-3A will be launched this year. Korea also successfully launched COMS (Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite), its first geostationary satellite, in 2006. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is therefore now concerned about the risk posed by space debris to these satellites. In fact, a preliminary analysis of the collision risk for KOMPSAT-1 (which was left out owing to a communication system malfunction in 2008) and KOMPSAT-2 was performed in light of Chinese’s Anti Satellite Test (ASAT) in 2007. The development of a full-scale analysis system for collision risk at KARI has been further encouraged by the satellite collision accident between the Iridium 33 satellite and the defunct Cosmos 2251 satellite at an altitude of 770 km, which significantly increased the amount of space debris in the LEO region of space. With this background in mind, the KARI Space debris collision risk MAnagement system (KARISMA) has been in development since 2011. KARISMA was finalized in July 2013 and then tested for the KOMPSAT satellite series. This paper presents the analysis results for the space collision risk of the KOMPSAT satellites using KARISMA as well as the collision avoidance (COLA) maneuver planning with various maneuver strategies for several conjunction events. The characteristics and architecture of KARISMA are also discussed with detailed operational views. Among the various features of KARISMA, the efficient process for both the analysis and the management of the collision risk and a user-friendly UI including various 2D and 3D displays for the results and conjunction geometry are the most remarkable. However, KARISMA has been developed as standalone software. Therefore, we plan to expand and modify it for various users in Korea by considering a server-client concept as a further work.