Aerospace Engineering Research Works
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1655
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Item Close Conjunction Detection on Parallel Computer(American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1995-07) Healy, LiamClose conjunction detection is the task of finding which satellites will come within a given distance of other satellites. The algorithms described here are implemented on the Connection Machine (CM) in a program called CM-COMBO. It will find close conjunctions of satellites over a time range for one, a few, or all satellites against the original or another catalog and works with an arbitrary propagator. The problem of comparing an entire catalog against itself is beyond the computing power of current serial machines. This program does not prefilter any orbits and does not make assumptions about the type of orbit (that it be nearly circular, for instance). This paper describes the algorithm for this computation, the implementation on the CM, and resuls of several studies using this program.Item Deterministic Studies of Debris Hazards with Parallel Processors(European Space Agency, 1993-04-05) Healy, Liam; Coffey, ShannonA new generation of parallel processing computers makes possible the ability to propagate all objects in the space surveillance catalog with simulated objects, and detect close approaches. With this capability, it is possible to test deterministically debris scenarios, without resorting to statistical models. To compare the positions of objects we have developed two methods, an all-to-all comparison and a one-to-all comparison. For the former, a seive significantly reduces computation time; for the latter, direct comparison is possible in parallel. We show results from several simulations, including simulated multiple sources of debris, hazard to the space station, and close contacts amongst the catalog itself, to show potential for debris studies. The techniques described here have potential application the general problem of catalog maintenance.Item Paint by number: Uncovering phase flows of an integrable dynamical system(American Institute of Physics, 1991-09) Healy, Liam; Deprit, EtienneGiven an integrable dynamical system with one degree of freedom, "painting" the integral over phase space proves to be a powerful technique for uncovering both global and local behavior. This graphical technique avoids numerical integration, employing instead a nonlinear method of assigning contrasting colors to the energy values to distinguish subtle details of the flow.