Distributed system for satellite trajectory estimation

Abstract

The near-Earth space surveillance requires accurate and fast orbit predictions for the multitude of objects that are present around our planet. This prediction is performed by means of orbit propagators which offer solutions to the satellite equations of motion. Based on the method of computation those propagators are split into three categories: analytical, numerical and semi-analytical, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Today a large number of propagators are implemented in the form of software libraries, some proprietary and some freeware or even open-source. In this paper we have taken a semi-analytical propagator from an open-source Java library and used it in a distributed environment in order to compute the position of a satellite during a large time interval.