Characterisation of Fragmentation Clouds and Fragmentation Event Reconstruction for Space Break-Up Forensics

Space debris is a growing problem that threatens the safety and sustainability of space activities. Break-up events can occur due to collisions with other satellites or debris, as well as due to internal explosions within a satellite. In this context, the OFELIA tool is being devised to integrate in a unique tool the functionalities needed for on-orbit break-up reconstruction and characterisation. This work focuses on two main aspects of the tool: metrics for the cloud characterisation and observation capabilities and fragmentation reconstruction methods. Concerning the first aspect, several indicators related to the dynamics of the cloud of fragments are taken into account to characterise the short and medium terms evolution of cloud. The second aspect proposes to reconstruct in-orbit breakups in the short-term by considering two possible scenarios: the fragmentation is not known a priori, or there has been a fragmentation event alert and the involved objects are known.