Data Association Using a Minimum-Fuel Metric

Abstract : Data association for Uncorrelated Tracks (UCTs) is a persistent and difficult problem in Space Situational Awareness. Space objects (SOs) often maneuver or are perturbed between observations, and when new measurements are collected, these new UCTs not always easily correlated with existing catalog objects. Presently, orbit element gating, Euclidean distances, and Mahalanobis distances are considered in the literature as tools with which UCTs may be appropriately associated. This Final Report details the software structure and implementation of a UCT association approach that examines the control effort (e.g., fuel) required for the newly observed SO to correspond to a previously observed SO. Synthetic data and on-orbit Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) data are both used to test the utility of the control distance data association approach. This Final Report details a) the contract statement of work, b) the software framework and implementation, c) a brief summary of the theory, d) a description of the synthetic and on-orbit WAAS data scenarios, e) comparison and analysis of several association metrics, and f) extensions to the control distance theory.