LiDAR small satellite for space debris location and attitude determination

Abstract

Orbital congestion has been dramatically increasing because of the lack of an integrated removal solution of space debris. The desire for sustainable human space activity has led to increase in the number of studies to remediate this problem. In order to decrease the collision risk between space debris and operational spacecraft, ground telescopes and radars have been largely used to detect and track large space debris. Even though, due to the greater number, size, and velocity, the small space debris remains as the greatest threat. LiDAR small satellite is the main promising solution to detect and characterize both small and large space debris. This research shows a brief description of the current technologies and methods used to tackle the main problem. The proposed LiDAR system and its main considerations for the location and attitude determination inside a field of view are presented. The space debris location inside the Laser field of view was determined by combining the laser range data and the spacecraft position - velocity vector over time. The space debris attitude was determined by, a novel method, the relation between the laser intensity reflection and the space debris rotation over time. Simulation results show that the relationship between the laser intensity reflection to the rotational angle of the space debris is more affected by the incidence angle (laser beam-surface normal) than the variation of distance between the spacecraft and space debris. Thus, any rotational object has a unique mean intensity reflection - rotation according to its shape. This relationship can be considered as its intensity reflection signature.