A new sensor allocation algorithm for the Space Surveillance Network

A new sensor resource allocation algorithm has been developed that allocates tracks from the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) to maintain the special perturbations satellite catalog to meet the accuracy requirements in the US Strategic Command Capstone Requirements Document (CRD) for Space Control. The required track density from the SSN to meet the accuracy requirements in the CRD increases with energy dissipation rate (EDR), which is a measure of the amount of atmospheric drag a satellite experiences. The sensor resource allocation algorithm is based on marginal analysis. Each satellite has a concave value function, which has decreasing marginal value as more tracks from the SSN are allocated until the expected value of the number of acquired tracks reaches the required track density based on EDR.