Patent ID: 11873121
Assignee: AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE SAS
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 0:
1. An adjustment method for adjusting an orbit of a satellite to limit a risk of collision with a cloud of space debris, wherein each piece of debris is associated to a date of closest passage with the satellite, the adjustment method including the steps of:
(a) determining a reference orbit of the satellite from an initial time instant until the date of closest passage furthest from the initial time instant;
(b) determining an ephemeris of state transition data representative of the reference orbit of the satellite;
(c) propagating, according to the determined ephemeris of the state transition data, at least one first alternative orbit of the reference orbit of the satellite according to at least one first avoidance maneuver related to the satellite performed during at least one free maneuver time slot, and from at least one maneuver time instant of the at least one free maneuver time slot until the date of closest passage furthest from the initial time instant;
(d) analytically determining an individual probability of collision on each date of closest passage for each piece of debris according to the at least one first alternative orbit of the satellite;
(e) determining at least one overall probability of collision according to all the individual probabilities of collision determined according to the at least one first alternative orbit of the satellite related to the at least one first avoidance maneuver;
(f) selecting at least one first lowest overall probability of collision among the at least one overall probability obtained according to step (e);
(h) determining a command of the satellite including at least the first maneuver related to the selected first lowest overall probability of collision.