Tracklet Association for Geosynchronous Space Objects Taking Impulse Maneuver

With the continuous increase in the number of space objects and limitations imposed by observation conditions, a significant number of short-arc observations, namely tracklets, are generated during the space surveillance process, making it challenging to determine the orbit using a single tracklet. Traditional tracklet association methods can establish associations between tracklets, thus enabling the utilization of multiple associated tracklets for orbit determination, but often overlook spacecraft maneuvers, posing challenges in dealing with tracklets after maneuvers. This paper proposes a joint estimation method for associating maneuvered tracklets and estimating maneuver parameters to address the association issue of tracklets before and after single-impulse maneuvers. Accurate association of maneuvered tracklets is achieved by inversely inferring the maneuvering process and estimating maneuver parameters. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of this method.