Related papers: Comparing Analytical and Numerical Approaches to M…
In the last years, a new generation of interplanetary space missions have been designed for the exploration of the solar system. At the same time, radio-science instrumentation has reached an unprecedented level of accuracy, leading to a…
A widely circulated infrared video from 2024 appears to show an air-to-surface missile engaging a small luminous "orb"-like object, producing debris and an apparent deflection of the missile's trajectory. This paper presents a comprehensive…
Meteors carry important and indispensable information about the interplanetary environment, which can be used to understand the origin and evolution of our solar system. We have developed a Multi-station Meteor Monitoring ($\rm M^3$) system…
Deflecting an asteroid from an Earth impact trajectory requires only small velocity changes, typically of the order of microns per second, if done many years ahead of time. For this, a highly precise method of determining the need,…
Given the critical roles that satellites play in national defense, public safety, and worldwide communications, finding ways to determine satellite trajectories is a crucially important task for improved space situational awareness.…
Spacecraft formation flying serves as a method of astronomical instrumentation that enables the construction of large virtual structures in space. The formation-flying interferometry generally requires very-high control accuracy, and…
The Global Meteor Network (GMN) utilizes highly sensitive low-cost CMOS video cameras which run open-source meteor detection software on Raspberry Pi computers. Currently, over 450 GMN cameras in 30 countries are deployed. The main goal of…
Here we revisit an initial orbit determination method introduced by O. F. Mossotti employing four geocentric sky-plane observations and a linear equation to compute the angular momentum of the observed body. We then extend the method to…
The risk of collision between resident space objects has significantly increased in recent years. As a result, spacecraft collision avoidance procedures have become an essential part of satellite operations. To ensure safe and effective…
Effective space traffic management requires positive identification of artificial satellites. Current methods for extracting object identification from observed data require spatially resolved imagery which limits identification to objects…
We present a general analytic framework to assess whether impact ejecta launched from the surface of a satellite can escape the gravitational influence of the planet--satellite system and enter heliocentric orbit. Using a patched-conic…
Currently the only method to establish the prevalence of particles, space debris or meteoroids, sized between 1 micrometre and a few centimetres, in Earth orbit is by instruments or witness plates dedicated to in-situ detection. Derived…
The computation of the Minimum Orbital Intersection Distance (MOID) is an old, but increasingly relevant problem. Fast and precise methods for MOID computation are needed to select potentially hazardous asteroids from a large catalogue. The…
Orbit determination is possible for a chaotic orbit of a dynamical system, given a finite set of observations, provided the initial conditions are at the central time. In a simple discrete model, the standard map, we tackle the problem of…
Methods. We processed a dataset of 584 Geminid fireballs observed by FRIPON between 2016 and 2023. The single-station astrometric data is converted into the Global Fireball Exchange (GFE) standard format for uniform processing. We assess…
We study for the first time the possibility of probing long-range fifth forces utilizing asteroid astrometric data, via the fifth force-induced orbital precession. We examine nine Near-Earth Object (NEO) asteroids whose orbital trajectories…
A catalog of 824 fireballs (bright meteors), observed by a dedicated network of all-sky digital photographic cameras in central Europe in the years 2017-2018 is presented. The status of the European Fireball Network, established in 1963, is…
We describe the fall of Annama meteorite occurred in the remote Kola Peninsula (Russia) close to Finnish border on April 19, 2014 (local time). The fireball was instrumentally observed by the Finnish Fireball Network. From these…
We calculate orbits for the Milky Way dwarf galaxies with proper motions, and compare these to subhalo orbits in a high resolution cosmological simulation. We use the simulation data to assess how well orbits may be recovered in the face of…
Reparameterization from the standard set of orbital elements to Cartesian position-velocity vectors can be computationally advantageous for orbit inference problems, particularly when orbital elements are weakly constrained. Here we present…