Best hypotheses search on iso-energy-grid for initial orbit determination and track association

Abstract

Debris populating the geostationary orbit is mainly observed by ground-based optical telescopes. Short measurement arcs, known as tracklets, provide line-of-sight information along with the associated rates of change. In view of their limited duration, individual tracklets cannot be used to determine a full set of orbital elements for the observed object. Multiple hypotheses filter methods have, therefore, been proposed to associate independent tracklets and to combine them for initial orbit determination. Using a traditional search grid for the admissible region, these methods become computationally intensive with an increasing number of initial hypotheses. As an alternative, this paper proposes a minimum search method to find the best matching orbit hypotheses. The effectiveness of the presented method is assessed using simulated measurements.