Space Object Tracking Using Orbit Element Constraints with Uncertainties

Tracking of a space object (SO) plays a key role in the space situational awareness. Research on the SO mainly focuses on the space object tracking (SOT) problem without incorporating the orbit information into estimation. However, the orbit contains much information about the SO since the object without maneuvering moves along a fixed elliptical orbit around the center of the Earth. Using the orbit information is beneficial to obtain an accurate tracking result. Thus, a SOT approach using orbit element constraints is proposed, in which the object location is constrained on the orbit. The uncertainties of the orbit element are also considered in the constraints. Then we present two tracking algorithms with the uncertainties considered and not considered, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is demonstrated by simulation results for a SO located at a low earth orbit.