Mr George Mitchell

Research project: Two-Line Element evolution for Space Situational Awareness applied to Cislunar and Cismartian constellations

Abstract

With companies all over the world looking to return to the Moon and Mars in the near future, and some launching their first mega-constellations of satellites, Space Situational Awareness is a much needed and rapidly growing field. Keeping these companies' assets as well as the lives of astronauts safe requires highly accurate trajectory mapping techniques, and current models need to be adapted for use away from standard elliptical Earth orbits to support this vital task. This project looks to improve current techniques by accounting for atmospheric and solar conditions in a Two-Line Estimate where appropriate, before converting these models to be usable when observing satellites around Mars and in the Cislunar region where orbits may be less stable. The produced model will be able to use input data from Space-based observations as well as data from traditional ground-bases.