ASSET (AScent SafETy) – a new Flight Dynamics Service for the Safety of Ascent Trajectories and Injection Orbits

Abstract

The sharp increase of Earth-orbiting objects and, subsequently, of possible in-orbit collisions, poses several challenges not only in operating satellites, but also in launching new ones. Indeed, a close conjunction between a rocket stage (or launched payloads) and a resident object can happen in the early orbits and even during ascent, before the new satellites are inserted into the catalogue of objects and screened on a routine basis. To mitigate this risk, the Flight Dynamics team of DLR's German Space Operations Centre (GSOC) is developing a service for launch collision avoidance, named ASSET (AScent SafETy), capable of providing an assessment on the safety of launch trajectories in terms of probability of collision with resident objects. The software is composed by several computation al boxes, in part directly inherited from the in-house, operational Collision Avoidance (COLA) software, in part newly developed for the specific application. This paper outlines the fundamental principles of ASSET and its software architecture. In addition, the first prototype is presented, starting from the implemented algorithms, numerical results and findings. Finally, the software limitations and points for improvement are described.