PRE2019 1 Group1
Autonomous systems for space traffic management
Group Members
| Name | Study | Student ID |
|---|---|---|
| Stijn Eeltink | Mechanical Engineering | 1004290 |
| Laura Kulter | Psychology&Technology | 0851512 |
| Annelies Severens | Biomedical Engineering | 1232787 |
Planning
Each week will consist of two meetings. Prior to each meeting the team will work individually on the tasks they have been assigned for that meeting. During the meetings the results of these tasks will be discussed and finalized.
L = Laura, S = Stijn, A = Annelies.
| Week | Monday (morning) | Wednesday (afternoon) |
| 1 | ALL : choose topic | ALL : literary research problem definition make the planning define structure of the report |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | L : introduction/problem statement L : wiki page A : state of the art A : mail tutor for presentation date S : users/stakeholders |
ALL : objectives/deliverables |
| 3 | political aspects economical aspects technical aspects (state of the art) |
political aspects economical aspects technical aspects |
| 4 | political aspects economical aspects technical aspects (effects of the solution) Intermediate evaluation (peer review) |
political aspects economical aspects technical aspects (effects of the solution) |
| 5 | concept discussion conclusion first draft |
Hand in first version for feedback |
| 6 | discuss feedback |
implement feedback |
| 7 | finalize report and wiki |
Final evaluation (peer review) finalize report and wiki |
| 8 | Presentation Deadline : report and wiki |
Introduction
On Monday morning September 2nd the European Space Agency had to fire the thrusters of its Aeolus satellite to avoid a collision with Starlink44. (source: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Safety/ESA_spacecraft_dodges_large_constellation)
While space debris has been a big threat to active satellites for a long time (previous 0LAUK0 groups have done extensive research on that topic before and presented several good solutions), there is now another upcoming threat that might become an even bigger threat to active satellites in the near future. Because of ongoing projects that plan to launch several (tens of) thousands of satellites into the space around earth in the coming years the risk of these satellites colliding with each other increases exponentially. Right now these collisions are avoided by ad hoc and human interference, this is however a solution that isn’t feasible in the future where instead of a 1 on 1 collision we will start running into constellations(satellite fleets) running into collision courses with other constellations, which would require manoeuvring thousands of satellites. In this project we will examine the current state of the art, stake holders and explore how autonomous space traffic management AI’s might help in solving this upcoming threat and try to give a recommendation which system looks the most promising for the future.