Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Mars Exploration: Deployment Use Case

In recent years, the area of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has seen rapid growth. There has been a trend to build and produce UAVs that can carry out planetary exploration throughout the past decade. The technology of UAVs has tremendous potential to support various successful space mission solutions. In general, different techniques for observing space objects are available, such as telescopes, probes, and flying spacecraft, orbiters, landers, and rovers. However, a detailed analysis has been carried out due to the benefits of UAVs relative to other planetary exploration techniques. The deployment of UAVs to other solar bodies has been considered by numerous space agencies worldwide, including NASA. This article contributes to investigating the types of UAVs that have been considered for various planetary explorations. This study further investigates the behaviour of UAV prototypes on Mars’ surface in particular. It has been discovered that a prototype UAV flight on Mars has a higher chance of success. In this research, a prototype UAV has been successfully simulated to fly on Mars’ surface. This article discusses the opportunities, challenges, and future scope of deploying UAVs on Mars.

Autonomous Streaming Space Objects Detection Based on a Remote Optical System

Traditional image processing techniques provide sustainable efficiency in the astrometry of deep space objects and in applied problems of determining the parameters of artificial satellite orbits. But the speed of the computing architecture and the functions of small optical systems are rapidly developing thus contribute to the use of a dynamic video stream for detecting and initializing space objects. The purpose of this paper is to automate the processing of optical measurement data during detecting space objects and numerical methods for the initial orbit determination.This article provided the implementation of a low-cost autonomous optical system for detecting of space objects with remote control elements. The basic algorithm model had developed and tested within the framework of remote control of a simplified optical system based on a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer with a modular camera. Under laboratory conditions, the satellite trajectory had simulated for an initial assessment of the compiled algorithmic modules of the computer vision library OpenCV.Based on the simulation results, dynamic detection of the International Space Station in real-time from the observation site with coordinates longitude 25o41′49″ East, latitude 53o52′36″ North in the interval 00:54:00–00:54:30 17.07.2021 (UTC + 03:00) had performed. The video processing result of the pass had demonstrated in the form of centroid coordinates of the International Space Station in the image plane with a timestamps interval of which is 0.2 s.This approach provides an autonomous raw data extraction of a space object for numerical methods for the initial determination of its orbit.

Atlas of light curves of space objects. Volume 6 (2019 – 2020)

Light curves of the artificial space objects (satellites and space debris bodies) were obtained using the KT-50 telescope (46.4778 N, 30.7557 E) equipped with a TV-CCD Watec-902H2.

MONITORING THE ARTIFICIAL SPACE OBJECTS WITH UKRAINIAN NETWORK OF OPTICAL STATIONS

The article describes the successes and challenges of the Ukrainian network of optical stations (UMOS) in recent years in the field of astrometric observations of artificial space objects both in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). UMOS was established in 2012 as a joint partnership of organizations interested in satellite observations for scientific purposes and practical near Earth space monitoring. The main purpose of the UMOS has been (and still is) to combine scientific and technical means with regular optical (positional and / or non-positional) observation. The short list of equipment of the UMOS members are given in the tables. The programs for observations, used methods and obtained results are described in the paper. In conclusion, the advantages of observations of artificial space objects by means of a network are summarized. The experience of UMOS and main results obtained by UMOS can be considered as the first step to create the SSA system of Ukraine.

Influence of Sustainable Development of Space Activities on Earth Ecology

In the age of New Space, faces the global problem of orbit space constraint. Sustainable development of space activities will be possible only when space users implement technologies and practices suitable to avoid accumulating objects in orbit. Artificial debris in orbital space has reached catastrophic proportions. This harm the Earth’s ecology leading to increased steps to transform a planet that is unsuitable for life. Based on the fractal analysis, the graphic interpretation of the components of SWOT-analysis of development of the rocket and space industry is built. It is found that the weak side and threat to the activities of the aerospace industry is the insufficient funding of implemented projects and inefficient distribution of finances between its components: science and production. It is proposed to use blockchain technology as an effective tool for the cybersecurity of space objects. The ecological risks from space activities that affect the Earth’s ecology are analyzed. It is proven that the prevention of severe environmental consequences and minimization of the negative impact of the above threats require the introduction of environmental management systems in space activities.