A novel conjunction filter based on the minimum distance between perturbed trajectories

• Main Authors: Rivero, Ana S, Baù, Giulio, Vazquez, Rafael, Bombardelli, Claudio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 28-10-2024
• Subjects: Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics; Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2410.20928

The increasing congestion in the near-Earth space environment has amplified
the need for robust and efficient conjunction analysis techniques including the
computation of the minimum distance between orbital paths in the presence of
perturbations. After showing that classical Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance
(MOID) computation schemes are unsuitable to treat Earth orbiting objects, the
article presents an analytical approach to provide a more accurate estimate of
the true distance between perturbed trajectories by incorporating the effect of
zonal harmonics of arbitrary order. Cook's linear secular theory for the motion
of the eccentricity vector is extended to include higher order eccentricity
effects and applied to the computation of the minimum and maximum radii
attained by two orbits at their mutual nodes, which can be employed to estimate
the true distance between the two orbital paths and to establish an efficient
algorithm for determining or excluding potential conjunctions. Extensive
testing and validation are conducted using a high-fidelity propagator and a
comprehensive dataset of resident space objects. The results demonstrate an
accuracy below the km level for the orbit distance computation in 99\% of
cases, which enables high-efficiency conjunction filtering.