Initial orbit determination of some cislunar orbits based on short-arc optical observations

Abstract

Ground- and space-based optical observation is an efficient way to catalog objects in the cislunar space. Initial orbit determination based on optical data is still an open problem for cislunar objects. The motion of these objects usually follows the law of three bodies instead of the two-body one, so current algorithms based on the two-body relation should be revised. Moreover, due to the long duration of most cislunar objects, optical observations of even hours can cover only a small fraction of one orbit, making the initial orbit determination of these objects a typical too-short-arc problem, which is difficult. A way to address this problem is to use the admissible region. In this study, an efficient algorithm constrained by the admissible region is proposed. It is easy to implement because it uses only simple iterations. Its efficiency is proven by comparing it with that of one traditional initial orbit determination algorithm.