Space Situational Awareness Forum - INTELSAT Presentation

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SPACE DATA ASSOCIATION CONJUNCTION ANALYSIS OPERATIONS

JOE CHAN

Space Situation Awareness 2015, 12 – 13 May 2015


Space Data Association (SDA)

The SDA’s charter is to seek and facilitate improvements in the safety and integrity of satellite operations through wider and improved coordination among satellite operators and to facilitate improved management of the shared resources of the space environment and the RF spectrum.

The SDA was formed in 2009 by Inmarsat, Intelsat and SES to share data. In April 2010, Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) won the contract to design and operate the Space Data Center, SDA’s automated space situational awareness system designed to reduce the risks of on-orbit collisions and radio frequency interference. Initial Space Data Center operations began in July, and full capabilities were online April 2011.

http://www.inmarsat.com/

http://www.intelsat.com/

http://www.ses.com/ses/


SDA ParticipantsMulti-national, open to all space operators, in all orbital regimes

The Space Data Association (SDA) is a not-for-profit association formed by satellite operators to provide reliable and efficient data-sharing critical to the long-term safety, viability and integrity of both space and RF environments.

Data Contributors

http://www.telesat.com/

http://www.noaa.gov/index.html



























SDA Overview

The Space Data Association (SDA) is a formal, non-profit association of civil, commercial and military spacecraft operators that supports the controlled, reliable and efficient sharing of data that is critical to the safety and integrity of satellite operations. The SDA offers: An association that directly supports operations; founded by

satellite operators An operational data exchange to help ensure the safety of

operations Technical support to help secure the integrity of operations Shared costs that optimize your participation and reduce individual

costs


SDA Objectives

Enhance “Safety of flight”– Maintain the long-term viability of satellites and their orbit regimes

To improve the accuracy of collision avoidance predictions– Expand satellite operator participation– Adopt best practices across industry– Provide necessary framework for full operations (legal, technical)– Address ops. issues with current cross-industry conjunction coord.

Reduce false alarms, missed events Minimize member time and resources devoted to CA

To take advantage of opportunities for other data sharing– RFI mitigation, including data for RFI geolocation– Company contacts– General operations data sharing

Conclusion: SDA Enhances Satellite Operations


Space Data Center (SDC) SDC is the processing center of the SDA Three Key Mission Areas:

– Collision avoidance monitoring (Conjunction Assessment)/ Maneuver Planning Validation / Flight Safety

– Radio Frequency Interference mitigation / Geolocation support– Contact information (operations center) for participating

satellites

Reliable and secure operation:– Geographically-separated redundancy– High-level data security and encryption– Best practice Information Assurance (IA) based on standards

for high level computing systems


SDC Operation Statistics (past 8 months)

Ephemeris files uploaded by members:– 180,005 operational ephemerides (with 28 frame converters)– 49 maneuver ephemerides for purpose of close approach

avoidance planning

CA runs executed: 3,452 CA satellite pairs processed: 11,628,521,266

– Conjunction detected: 4,166,725– TLEs in database: 2,300,497


SDC Recent Achievements Developed, tested & deployed Amazon SDC in 8 months

– Transitioned from Rackspace to Amazon Web Services (AWS)– Transitioned SDC DB from MS SQL Server to Oracle (AWS RDS)– Conducted shadow mode operations

New SDC self-signed certs for improved ops & reduced cost New Sophos Unified Threat Mgr (UTM) for all SDC transactions Upgraded SDC Plugin for new Conjunction Data Message (CDM) Drafted Orbit Hybrid Message under ISO/CCSDS auspices Carrier ID Database and RFI Precomputed Sol’n Set prototypes On-going SDC operations:

– Four new operators w/ new ephemeris converters etc.– CDM & TLE comparisons, ephem. quality monitoring, OD verifications– JSpOC dialogue for CDM & TLE comparisons, cross-tags & issues– Coordinating SSA Data Sharing w/USSTRATCOM & JSpOC– Space debris mitigation & research (Iridium 47,91 & DMSP, spatial dens)


Current State of Conjunction Monitoring Space Data Association (SDA)

– Participant orbit ephemeris including maneuver effects– TLE to supplement drifters and non-cooperated satellites– Conjunction alerts currently based on miss-distances only– Single Tier system for conjunctions between participating

satellites Effectiveness depends on the participant size

– Two Tier system for conjunctions involving debris, non-cooperative active satellites and drifters Drifters and non-active space objects are limited to TLE

– Close approach validation via JSpOC Form-1 process

SDA is working to close the gap of requiring Two Tier system for conjunction monitoring


“Tiered” SSA Screening Approaches

Two-Tier: pre-screen w/low-fidelity data to find potential threats for Tier 2 refinement– Increases operator’s analyst & mgmt. requirements and delay

actions– Increased risk: lower-fidelity data ▬► missed conjunctions

Single-Tier uses most current, authoritative and actionable data in initial analysis– Increases tracking and data exchange requirements– Reduces operator’s analyst & mgmt. requirements– For given ensemble of data, no further analysis req’d– Resources permitting, best for decision-makers (actionable

alarms)


SDA Government Activities

Signed groundbreaking SSA data sharing agreement with U.S. Government– USG signed 1st agreement with non-satellite operator– Allows SDA close collaboration with USG to, e.g. exchange

higher quality data than publicly available

Orbital Data Request (ODR) being processed– SDA / USG: Sharing of the best available SP ephemeris for

debris, non-cooperative active satellites and drifters– Objective: Optimal data shared – Combine aspects of JSpOC

catalog plus satellite operator and maneuver data (SDC)– Exploring best technical means to exchange data between

JSpOC and SDC for flight safety– Expecting data flow to begin early May


SDA: Current Services

Conjunction Assessment (CA) to analyze and warn of close approaches between a member’s satellite and other space objects– On-station, LEOP and Satellite Relocation

Neighborhood watch program to monitor collocating satellites with different members and within the same operator



Sanity sensor calibration by comparing Owners Operator (O/O) ephemeris with the Two-Line-Elements (TLE)

SatA Longitude



Independent orbit determination verifications Offered as part of SDA’s quality assurance focus Initial and annual independent OD verifications Ensures SDC properly converts O/O ephem Identifies sensor, processing & OD issues


SDA Current Services

Cross-Tag detection and provide alerts to JSpOC

Recently provided to JSpOC and was corrected


SDA Complementary Services

Plug-in to interface with Conjunction Summary Message (CSM) for operators to provide added value conjunction assessments


SDA Ongoing Development

Deal with the growing problem of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) – RFI Alerts to focused distribution– RFI historical event search: data support– Generation of geolocation data sets from high quality

ephemeris– Library of Reference Emitters– Carrier ID database


SDA – Enhancing Member’s Operations Increase safety of flight – functions already operational

– Automatic Conjunction Assessment (CA), using operator’s ephemeris– Reduce false alarms, missed events– Minimize time and resources devoted to CA– Include planned maneuvers (unique capability)

Deal with the growing problem of RFI – ongoing development– RFI Alerts to focused distribution– RFI historical event search: data support– Generation of geolocation data sets from high quality ephemeris– Library of Reference Emitters– Carrier ID database

Reliable contacts for satellite operators – functions operational


SDA: A Trusted Platform

Over the last 5 years, SDA has built and demonstrated a trusted platform for the secure exchange of satellite operational data

Technical infrastructure of the SDC: security, data access, etc. Legal structure and agreements that provide protections and

enforcement mechanisms to ensure that data is only used for intended purposes

Reliabilities and geographical redundancies to ensure 24x7 uninterrupted operations and member technical supports

Collaborative and continuous development improving techniques and algorithm to refine close approach detections and actions

Growing in capabilities, membership and partners

These are UNIQUE CAPABILITIES


SDA Operators Vision for CA

Civil Sat Operator

Others

Military Sat Operator

Commercial Sat Operator

Civil Commercial

SDA

Data conversions and reformatting *Data FusionSingle Tier CA monitoring

* Functions include:Data quality control, close approach monitoring and reporting

3rd Party High Quality Data

Civil Sat Operator

Commercial Sat Operator

Routine data contribution and

information sharing

Military


information sharing


information sharing

Routine data contribution

and information

sharingMilitary Sat Operator

Routine data contribution

and information

sharing


Conclusions

SDA formed to improve space operations– Focused on the present but with an eye to the future

SDA’s combination of a trusted legal framework and a trusted Space Data Center is unique in highly-competitive space arena

SDA leveraging its experience and capabilities to engage and promote best practices for safety of flight

SDA now adding extensive RFI analysis capabilities

Science

Space Situational Awareness Forum - INTELSAT Presentation