Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) plays a crucial role in ensuring space safety. To this end, accurate and numerous observational resources are needed to build and maintain a catalog of space objects. In particular, it is essential to develop optimal observation strategies to maximize both the number and the quality of detections obtained from a sensor network. This represents a key step in the assessment of the network through simulations. This work presents the integrated development of sensor tasking strategies for optical systems and a track-to-track correlation pipeline within SΞNSIT, a software environment designed to simulate sensor network configurations and evaluate cataloging performance. For high-altitude low Earth orbit (HLEO) targets, which are fast-moving and widely distributed, tasking strategies emphasize systematic scans of the Earth’s shadow boundary to exploit favorable phase angles and improve observational accuracy, while medium- and geostationary-Earth orbits (MEO–GEO) rely on equatorial-plane scans. The correlation pipeline employs Two-Body Integrals, uncertainty propagation, and a χ2-test with the Squared Mahalanobis Distance to associate tracks and perform initial orbit determination of newly detected objects. Results indicate that the integrated approach significantly enhances detection coverage, leading to greater catalog build-up efficiency and improved SST performance. Consequently, it facilitates the cataloging of numerous uncataloged objects within a reduced timeframe.
Source: Aerospace
Institution: Politecnico di Milano
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Award: G5469413855
OpenAlex ID: W7122787378