Abstract:
This work examines the evolving challenges facing Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) as space activity accelerates and geopolitical risks intensify. It documents rapid growth in debris and active spacecraft populations, rising conjunction rates, and the disruptive effects of anti-satellite testing, large constellations, and unmodeled or mismodeled maneuvers on operational safety. The analysis identifies systemic limitations in legacy SSA architectures, including outdated orbit determination methods, insufficient accuracy and latency, and the inability to effectively incorporate commercial data and operator-provided information. Evidence from recent data fusion campaigns demonstrates that deep collaboration between spacecraft operators, governments, and commercial SSA providers can yield substantial improvements in positional accuracy across orbital regimes, including multi-fold gains in GEO and MEO and order-of-magnitude gains during early operations. The work further highlights the strategic importance of commercial remote sensing, diversified sensor networks, and resilient commercial SSA services in modern conflict environments. It concludes that sustainable and secure space operations will require widespread adoption of data exchange standards, strengthened public–private collaboration, and operational deployment of fusion-based SSA and SDA architectures.
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Oltrogge, D.L., “Addressing space threats by using commercial SSA and SDA,” LSAS-Tech SDA Workshop, Tokyo, Japan, 10 Jul 2024.
