Development and Validation for Reentry Analysis Tool

Abstract

In the last decades, the achievement in the research and developments of advanced space technology allows more satellites to be launched into the Earth orbits. It leads to an increasing number of space objects that can become threat to active satellites or humankind when they reentry the Earth. In 2018, Tiangong-1, for example, was discharged and planned to reentry the Earth. Thailand was one of many countries as the possible reentry area holding a high casualty risk. In this event, the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) was responsible for monitoring and analyzing the possible reentry areas and times using the flight dynamics analysis system known as EMERALD . However, it requires an expert to perform more programming and analysis that is not convenient for the operators. This paper presents the reentry algorithm with an enhancement of the computational accuracy by applying special perturbations (the high-fidelity model of atmospheric drag and potential gravity). The enhanced algorithms were verified by comparing with the results from the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) under the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). Then, the further development plan describes how to implement parallel computation technique to support the reentry analysis of over 21,000 space objects.