Orbital Space Environment and Space Situational Awareness Domain Ontology

As the population of satellites and other orbital objects in the space environment increases, the potential for collisions and orbital debris formation does as well. Existing sensors observe much of the night sky, gathering various sorts of data, but no space actor has full coverage of the orbital space environment. Although some nations have data-sharing agreements, not all exchanged data is raw/unmediated, and not all space actors share data. In toto, this spotlights the need for more precise and complete space situational awareness (SSA) for the global community. Achieving this requires exchanging data and analyzing it to generate knowledge that can be used to ensure the safety of persons and infrastructure in space and on Earth’s surface. This data must be updated dynamically in real-time and actionable in order to protect lives and space assets. Following [1],[2], this project formally studies and ontologically represents the orbital space and space situational awareness domain. The domain is that of the orbital and near-Earth space environments; the objects and phenomena therein; their orbits and orbital properties, motion, causal interrelations; spacecraft operations; sensor data; observation, detection, prediction and modeling activities; and scientific disciplines such as astrodynamics. Varieties of data include orbital parameters, spacecraft telemetry, and different sorts of observational sensor data (infrared, optical, etc.). .Existing data sources that have overlapping data include space debris catalogs, space object catalogs, and other SSA databases of: space-faring nations, such as the European Space Agency[3], and NASA (e.g. Orbital Debris Office); private-sector space organizations, such as Space Data Association; individual sensor and satellite operators; and academia (e.g., university observatories). In conjunction with additional sensors, space data-exchange will help reduce the coverage gaps individual space actors may presently have while improving global SSA. Orbital trajectories, future positions and potential collisions (orbital conjunctions) can be more accurately determined if more data is made available. Just as with meteorological forecasts, predictive capabilities become more precise, and we stand to advance our scientific knowledge about the orbital environment. Barriers to sharing SSA data include legal and security concerns, e.g., anonymity, proprietary information, data related to national security space assets, and international relations. Additional barriers include the different data formats, and data silos.