EO/IR Satellite Constellations for the Early Detection and Tracking of Collision Events

The detection and tracking of collision events involving existing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Resident Space Objects (RSOs) is becoming increasingly important with the higher LEO space objects traffic volume which is anticipated to increase even further in the near future. Changes in velocity that can lead to a collision are hard to detect early on time, and before the collision happens. Several collision events can happen at the same time and continuous monitoring of the LEO orbit is necessary in order to determine and implement collision avoidance strategies. We present a simulation of a constellation system consisting of multiple platforms carrying EO/IR sensors for the detection of such collisions. The presented simulation encompasses the full complexity of LEO trajectories changes which can collide with currently operating satellites. Efficient multitarget filter with information-theoretic multisensor management is implemented and evaluated on different constellations.