Efficient laser ranging to space debris

Rodriguez-Villamizar, Julian (2022). Efficient laser ranging to space debris. (Dissertation, Universität Bern, Philosophisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät)

Text Diss_JulianRodriguez_final20220426.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (59MB)

The increasing population of resident space objects (RSOs), in already congested specific regions of the outer space, leads to a growing number of close encounters between RSOs. Coping with this unprecedented amount of space-traffic, which only seems to worsen if e.g. one considers current plans for the deployment of mega-constellations in the Low Earth Orbit region, calls for new approaches to mitigate collisions between RSOs. Innovative concepts to avoid collisions involving active spacecraft, but also collisions among debris, including e.g. just-in-time collision avoidance techniques, will all require much better knowledge about the trajectories of the involved objects. Within this context, active electro-optical systems using lasers are attractive since they provide precise and accurate range measurements for the improvement of RSOs orbits. The latter have a direct impact on catalogue maintenance, as well as on the estimation of close conjunctions and efficicient collision avoidance manoeuvres. In addition, laser systems may transfer a defined amount of optical electromagnetic radiation transforming it into mechanical energy, with the final aim of changing the trajectory of a non-manoeuvrable RSO that is predicted to collide with another RSO on short notice. One of the drawbacks of the laser systems stems from the rather small field of view of the laser beam; to overcome the latter, laser systems may be equipped with a target acquisition and tracking passive electro-optical subsystem. In this work, we present our last achievements, which comprise the implementation of a target acquisition and tracking subsystem, selected examples of daylight observations with passive or active electro-optical systems, and the status of the operational implementation of the fundamental 1064 nm wavelength of the laser system, which was needed to increase the emitted pulse energy, thus increasing the likelihood of having returns with a focus on objects that do not carry any highly reflective element on board. We conducted all experiments and implementations in the Zimmerwald Laser and Astrometric Telescope (ZIMLAT), being a sensor of the Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Observatory Zimmerwald (SwissOGS), located 10 km from Bern, Switzerland, operated by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

11 since deposited on 08 Jun 2022
2 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item