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Development of a Software for Re-Entry Prediction of Space Objects for Space Situational Awareness

우주상황인식을 위한 인공우주물체 추락 예측 소프트웨어 개발

  • Received : 2021.05.06
  • Accepted : 2021.05.10
  • Published : 2021.05.31

Abstract

The high-level Space Situational Awareness (SSA) objective is to provide to the users dependable, accurate and timely information in order to support risk management on orbit and during re-entry and support safe and secure operation of space assets and related services. Therefore the risk assessment for the re-entry of space objects should be managed nationally. In this research, the Software for Re-Entry Prediction of space objects (SREP) was developed for national SSA system. In particular, the rate of change of the drag coefficient is estimated through a newly proposed Drag Scale Factor Estimation (DSFE), and is used for high-precision orbit propagator (HPOP) up to an altitude of 100 km to predict the re-entry time and position of the space object. The effectiveness of this re-entry prediction is shown through the re-entry time window and ground track of space objects falling in real events, Grace-1, Grace-2, Tiangong-1, and Chang Zheng-5B Rocket body. As a result, through analysis 12 hours before the final re-entry time, it is shown that the re-entry time window and crash time can be accurately predicted with an error of less than 20 minutes.

1톤 이상의 인공우주물체 중 통제가 불가능한 인공우주물체의 추락은 지상에서의 인명 및 자산 피해가 발생할 가능성이 높기 때문에 국가적으로도 '인공우주물체 추락·충돌 대응 매뉴얼'에 따라 우주물체 추락 상황에 대한 위기를 관리한다. 따라서 인공우주물체 추락 상황 및 위험도를 판단하기 위한 신속하고 정확한 인공우주물체 추락 예측 정보를 제공하는 것이 매우 중요하다. 인공우주물체 추락 예측 방법은 국내외 여러 기관들에서 수행하고 있으나, 국가적으로 신뢰할 수 있는 국내 독자적인 툴의 확보는 국가 우주위험 재난 위기 상황에서 매우 필수적이다. 본 연구에서는 인공우주물체의 추락 상황에서 관측으로부터 생성된 우주물체의 접촉궤도요소 또는 해외에서 공개되는 평균궤도요소를 활용하여 인공우주물체의 추락 예상 시각 및 지점을 정밀하게 예측할 수 있는 소프트웨어를 개발하였다. 개발된 소프트웨어는 그레이스 1호(Grace-1) 위성과 그레이스 2호(Grace-2), 톈궁 1호(Tiangong 1) 위성과 창정 5B호 로켓 잔해(CZ-5B)와 같은 실제 통제 불가능한 인공우주물체의 추락 상황에서 독자적인 우주물체 추락 예측 정보를 제공하여 검증하였다.

Keywords

References

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