Satellite two-line elements (TLE) quality control
Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is an activity ensuring the monitoring of space activities in order to have a common operational picture of space. In order to predict the movements of space objects, their orbital parameters are needed. The TLE are the base for orbital analysis and position predictions. Different sources provide the orbital data of different accuracy. However, they are sometimes provided incorrectly, leading to a wrong prediction of position and erroneous maneuvers in space, or there are some attribution mistakes.
Objectives
To evaluate the usability of the TLEs, some analyses are needed to provide the users with an accuracy evaluation. The goals are, but not limited to:
• Control the correctness of the TLE
• Compute their covariance and design a rejection mechanism
• Provide the user with a metric of trust
• Design the complete automatic tool chain of TLE treatment, from posting to usage
Required skills
For the good realization of the project, it is recommended that the student have:
• Ease with the treatment of multiple sources and the design of database
• Programming skills in Java or python
• General understanding of the orbital dynamics
• Ability to appraise and adapt the project to fulfill the needs of the Space Domain
• A sense of responsibility to provide the work quality to be used for everyday applications
Place of work
The student will have the opportunity to work in a stimulating environment with other students in different locations (Lausanne, Bern, Zurich) in Switzerland depending on the needs of the projects.