System for Near-Term Mitigation of Space Debris
AssigneeRedtower Enterprises, LLC (DBA Redtower Labs)
InventorStephen Paul Rojas
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved debris generator that can be used as part of a space object modeling (SOM) system to turn any active spacecraft into a debris sensor for characterizing and cataloging space debris. The space debris generator includes an extractor which extracts satellite sensor data into a sensor store, an impact agent which estimates “on the fly” new debris field objects generated by the collision, and an injector which stores the enhanced object data on a central server for near-term mitigation of impact driven breakup events. The impact agent is an artificial neural network trained using a large number of simulations of impact events.
Claims7
A method performed by an on-board or ground based computing system for quickly characterizing and cataloging debris strikes using spacecraft sensor data.
A memory storing computer executable instructions for controlling a computer system to characterize and catalog space debris using in-situ spacecraft data comprising:
- i) extractor instructions that extract, process, and store satellite sensor information.
- ii) impact agent instructions that calculate impact dynamics and debris characteristics, including pre and post impact parameters, from the sensor store data.
- iii) spacecraft impact emulator instructions that can be used to train an agent off-line.
- iv) injector instructions that store the debris characteristics for use by other SOM components.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.