Orientation information of space debris is required to improve the orbital prediction accuracy for mitigation or elimination of a significant threat to not only human space activities but also operational satellites. Obtaining orientation information is currently achievable by applying photometry, adaptive optics (AO) and satellite laser ranging (SLR) technologies. In this study, a new method is proposed based on an echo laser pulse waveform (ELPW) for the orientation determination of space debris; its feasibility was also investigated by numerical simulations. Unlike the photometry and AO technologies available just under the sun-illumination condition and the SLR technology applicable only for cooperative targets, the ELPW is achievable by using a high power laser regardless of the above measurement constraints. A mathematical model is derived to generate the ELPW, and the beam broadening and spreading due to the atmospheric turbulence is taken into account. The Gaussian decomposition based on a genetic algorithm was employed to the ELPWs in order to analyze the orientation features. It is demonstrated from the numerical simulations that the ELPWs have distinctive shapes characterizing the orientation of space debris and therefore our approach was capable of providing orientation information.

The global electro-optical (EO) and laser tracking sensor network was considered to investigate improvements to orbit prediction (OP) accuracy of space debris by combining angle and laser ranging data. However, it is worth noting that weather, schedule and visibility constraints can frequently limit the operations of such sensors, which may not result in sufficient tracking data for accurate OP. In this study, several 1-day OP results for low Earth orbit (LEO) space debris targets were demonstrated under a limited observation environment to verify the OP accuracy through the combination of angle and laser ranging data from two sites. For orbit determination (OD) processes, it was considered to analyze the OP accuracy by one site providing both 2–day arc angle data and 1-day arc laser ranging data, while the other was limited to 1-day arc angle data. In addition, the initial ballistic coefficient ( ${\mathit{B}}_{\mathit{C}}$ ) application method was proposed and implemented for the improvement of OD/OP accuracy, which introduces the modified correction factor depending on the drag coefficient. In the cases of combining the angle and laser ranging data, the OP results show the 3D position difference values are below 100 m root mean square (RMS) with small position uncertainty. This value satisfies the target OP accuracy for conjunction assessments and blind laser ranging (about 50–100 m at 1000 km altitude). The initial ${\mathit{B}}_{\mathit{C}}$ application method also shows better OP accuracy than the method without the correction factor.

An automated signal-acquisition method for the NASA’s space geodesy satellite laser ranging (SGSLR) system is described as a selection of two system parameters with specified probabilities. These parameters are the correlation parameter: the minimum received pulse number for a signal-acquisition and the frame time: the minimum time for the correlation parameter. The probabilities specified are the signal-detection and false-acquisition probabilities to distinguish signals from background noise. The steps of parameter selection are finding the minimum set of values by fitting a curve and performing a graphdomain approximation. However, this selection method is inefficient, not only because of repetition of the entire process if any performance values change, such as the signal and noise count rate, but also because this method is dependent upon system specifications and environmental conditions. Moreover, computation is complicated and graph-domain approximation can introduce inaccuracy. In this study, a new method is proposed to select the parameters via a conditional equation derived from characteristics of the signal-detection and false-acquisition probabilities. The results show that this method yields better efficiency and robustness against changing performance values with simplicity and accuracy and can be easily applied to other satellite laser ranging (SLR) systems.