Combined Optical and Radar Measurements for Orbit Determination

In the context of space surveillance and tracking a critical phase is the identification of newly detected objects and related initial orbit determination. We propose an analysis of the combined use of radar and optical instruments in the context of the stare and chase concept. This approach aims to merge the precise optical angular measures with the precise range measures of radar. The strategy followed consists in a staring optical camera allowing to get a prediction of new space objects’ trajectory. The latter will be sent to a radar instrument which will perform the chasing phase. Depending on the quality of optical observations, two different approaches are used to derive the predicted trajectory. At the end of the operations, very accurate results in terms of orbit determination were found, proving that this strategy may represent a valid alternative in the future.