OrbitalIntel

A conjunction is a predicted close approach between two objects in orbit. Operators receive warnings from several sources and must judge which are credible. Public orbital elements have limited accuracy, so a screening result is a prompt for review and not a decision.

OrbitalIntel is designed to provide the following.

• Orbit propagation from public orbital data.
• Conjunction screening of a spacecraft against catalogued objects.
• Candidate events listed with time of closest approach, estimated miss distance and uncertainty.
• Ranking of events so the most relevant are reviewed first.
• A record of each event, the data used and the operator decision.

An example of how an operations team would use OrbitalIntel. The steps are illustrative.

1. Orbital data for the spacecraft and the surrounding objects is updated.
2. The spacecraft is screened against the catalogue for close approaches.
3. Candidate events are ranked and shown with their uncertainty.
4. An operator reviews an event, and records whether to monitor or escalate.
5. Escalated events are sent to MissionOS as planning inputs.

OrbitalIntel sends conjunction alerts to MissionOS and contact constraints to GroundNet. It uses public orbital data by default. A partner can supply its own ephemeris, and the supported formats are agreed with that partner.

• A screening configuration for the partner orbit and spacecraft size.
• A sample conjunction report in a format the operations team agrees.
• A comparison of results against the data sources the partner already uses.
• A written statement of assumptions and known data limits.

Pilots are scoped with each partner. See the Design Partner Program.

Screening from public data identifies candidates. It does not decide whether to manoeuvre. Manoeuvre decisions remain with the operator and the data holder.