Scaling Orbit Propagation Analysis Capabilities with Cloud Computing, Data Analytics and the Unified Data Library

As the number of space objects proliferates, there is a growing need to perform automated, high fidelity orbit propagation on a large number of these objects. We present an approach that performs high fidelity orbit propagation at large scale on a private or public cloud. We download state vector data generated by LeoLabs for objects in low earth orbit from the Unified Data Library (UDL); we perform orbit propagation on these state vectors by running multiple instances of the Aerospace Corporation’s TRACE (Trajectory Analysis and Orbit Determination Program) software on a cloud using the Aerospace Data Exploitation (DEX) analytics platform. We describe the architecture and implementation of this system and explain how this approach can be used to track thousands of space objects automatically and efficiently.