Space debris orbit determination performance analysis using accurate simulated angular and ranging data

Optical angles and laser ranging data are two common types of space debris accurate tracking data. After a great deal of simulated experiments, the performance of debris orbit determination and prediction were investigated using these two types of data, in an effort to understand their characteristics and use these sparse data in a better manner in the future. At first, the simulated angular data of 1 accuracy and ranging data of 1 m accuracy were generated using Consolidated Prediction Format(CPF) orbits of Starlette and Larets in January, 2015 for four observation stations in China. Then, orbit determination cases using data from single station and two stations were formed. For all orbit determination cases, data from either full pass or shorter pass were used in orbit computations. Result shows that the Orbit Prediction(OP) results using angular data are more stable than those using ranging data. Specifically, about 75% of 1-2 day OPs using angular data of two 90 second passes have accuracy better than 20. It also shows that the OP performances using two single-station passes are very similar to those using two passes from two stations.