Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Outline

Title
Abstract
Introduction
The Orbital Debris Data Problem
Physical or Material
Subject
Conclusion
References
All Topics
Philosophy
Metaphysics

An Ontological Architecture for Orbital Debris Data

Profile image of Robert RovettoRobert Rovetto

2015, Earth Science Informatics

https://doi.org/10.1007/S12145-015-0233-3
visibility

…

description

22 pages

link

1 file

Abstract

The orbital debris problem presents an opportunity for international cooperation toward the mutually beneficial goals of orbital debris prevention, mitigation, remediation, and improved space situational awareness (SSA). Achieving these goals requires sharing orbital debris and other SSA data. Toward this, I present an ontological architecture for the orbital debris and related domains, taking steps in the creation of an orbital debris ontology. The purpose of the ontology is to capture general scientific domain knowledge; formally represent the entities within the domain; form, structure, and standardize (where needed) orbital and SSA terminology; and foster semantic interoperability and data-exchange. In doing so I hope to offer a scientifically accurate ontological representation of the orbital domain; contribute to research in astroinformatics, space ontology, and space data management; and improve spaceflight safety by providing a means to capture and communicate information associated with space debris.

Related papers

Ontology For Europe's Space Situational Awareness Program
Robert Rovetto

Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Space Debris, 2017

This paper presents an ontology architecture concept for the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Program. It incorporates the author‘s domain ontology, The Space Situational Awareness Ontology and related ontology work. I summarize computational ontology, discuss the segments of ESA SSA, and introduce an option for a modular ontology framework reflecting the divisions of the SSA program. Among other things, ontologies are used for data sharing and integration. By applying ontology to ESA data, the ESA may better achieve its integration and innovation goals, while simultaneously improving the state of peaceful SSA.

View PDFchevron_right
Ontology-based Knowledge Management for Space Data
Robert Rovetto

Proceedings of 68th International Astronautical Congress, 2017

This paper discusses some ways ontologies help with knowledge management. The discipline of ontology engineering in relation to knowledge management is briefly explained. Summaries of projects using ontological models in their knowledge or information architectures for space data, astronautics and space science are provided. The author's space ontology development efforts are presented.

View PDFchevron_right
Debrisat’s Debris Categorization System: A Database- Based Solution to the Big Data Challenges Impacting the Future Regulation of Orbital Debris
Norman Fitz-coy

2017

Orbital debris propagation threatens the future of space exploration. To address the orbital debris challenge, future regulations governing space operations need to be discussed, debated, and implemented. These regulations must be based on solid sets of scientific data. DebriSat is an ongoing hypervelocity impact (HVI) experiment that aims to generate new scientific data to empower informed decisions on future orbital debris regulation. The DebriSat HVI experiment produced hundreds of thousands of debris fragments, which are currently being collected, characterized, and recorded. The DebriSat Debris Categorization System (DCS) is a database-based solution designed to address the big data challenges posed by the DebriSat experiment. This paper outlines the standard big data framework and design metrics and describes how they relate to DebriSat and the orbital debris community. Furthermore, this paper describes the methodology and processes employed during the design and implementatio...

View PDFchevron_right
Data model management for space information systems
Chris Mattmann

Relation, 2008

The Reference Architecture for Space Information Management (RASIM) suggests the separation of the data model from software components to promote the development of flexible information management systems. RASIM allows the data model to evolve independently from the software components and results in a robust implementation that remains viable as the domain changes. However, the development and management of data models within RASIM are difficult and time consuming tasks involving the choice of a notation, the capture of the model, its validation for consistency, and the export of the model for implementation. Current limitations to this approach include the lack of ability to capture comprehensive domain knowledge, the loss of significant modeling information during implementation, the lack of model visualization and documentation capabilities, and exports being limited to one or two schema types. The advent of the Semantic Web and its demand for sophisticated data models has addressed this situation by providing a new level of data model management in the form of ontology tools. In this paper we describe the use of a representative ontology tool to capture and manage a data model for a space information system. The resulting ontology is implementation independent. Novel on-line visualization and documentation capabilities are available automatically, and the ability to export to various schemas can be added through tool plug-ins. In addition, the ingestion of data instances into the ontology allows validation of the ontology and results in a domain knowledge base. Semantic browsers are easily configured for the knowledge base. For example the export of the knowledge base to RDF/XML and RDFS/XML and the use of open source metadata browsers provide ready-made user interfaces that support both text-and facet-based search. This paper will present the Planetary Data System (PDS) data model as a use case and describe the import of the data model into an ontology tool. We will also describe the current effort to provide interoperability with the European Space Agency (ESA)/Planetary Science Archive (PSA) which is critically dependent on a common data model.

View PDFchevron_right
DebriSat's DCS: A Database-Based Solution to the Big Data Challenges Impacting the Future Regulation of Orbital Debris
Norman Fitz-coy

7th European Conference on Space Debris, 2017

Orbital debris propagation threatens the future of space exploration. To address the orbital debris challenge, future regulations governing space operations need to be discussed, debated, and implemented. These regulations must be based on solid sets of scientific data. DebriSat is an ongoing hypervelocity impact (HVI) experiment that aims to generate new scientific data to empower informed decisions on future orbital debris regulation. The DebriSat HVI experiment produced hundreds of thousands of debris fragments, which are currently being collected, characterized, and recorded. The DebriSat Debris Categorization System (DCS) is a database-based solution designed to address the big data challenges posed by the DebriSat experiment. This paper outlines the standard big data framework and design metrics and describes how they relate to DebriSat and the orbital debris community. Furthermore, this paper describes the methodology and processes employed during the design and implementation of the DCS.

View PDFchevron_right
Ontology-supported scientific data frameworks: The Virtual Solar-Terrestrial Observatory experience
José Barnoya García

Computers & Geosciences, 2009

We have developed a semantic data framework that supports interdisciplinary virtual observatory projects across the fields of solar physics, space physics and solar-terrestrial physics.

View PDFchevron_right
From Debris to Database; the Development of an Efficient Data Processing Chain for Space Situational Awareness Services
Emmet Fletcher, Estrella Olmedo, Vicente Navarro

The heart of an effective space surveillance system lies in the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the space object catalogue. The process to populate and maintain this catalogue is not a trivial exercise and requires the manipulation of heterogeneous observation data to both perform orbit determination and correlation with objects already identified. The process should be sufficiently robust to allow the automatic incorporation of new objects as well as alerting for lost objects without a large overhead in terms of manpower and human interaction. The European Space Situational Awareness precursor programme has been developing such a system as part of its Space Surveillance element. This paper describes how the original design criteria were incorporated into the development of this system, as well as its incorporation into a modern service oriented architecture.

View PDFchevron_right

References (32)

  1. Astronomy/Science Ontology", Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, USA. URL= http://www.astro.umd.edu/~eshaya/astro-onto/ , http://www.astro.umd.edu/~eshaya/astro-onto/ontologies/astronomy.html (Accessed: March 2015).
  2. Becker K, Chow T, (2012) Lessons Learned from Maritime Domain Awareness for International SSA Data Sharing, 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy. International Astronautical Federation.
  3. Borne K.D. (2009) Astroinformatics: A 21st Century Approach to Astronomy -Astro2010 State of the Profession Position Paper. URL= http://arxiv.org/pdf/0909.3892v1.pdf (Accessed Nov 24, 2014) Common Logic -International Organization for Standards URL= http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=39175 (Accessed Dec 2014) Commercial Space Operations Center (CSOC), Analytical Graphics, Inc. URL= http://comspoc.com/ (Accessed Nov 30 2014)
  4. European Space Agency. "Global Experts Agree Action Needed On Space Debris" URL=http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Debris/Global_experts_agree_action_needed_on_space_ debris (Accessed Nov 24, 2014)
  5. European Space Agency. "Space Debris -About" URL= http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Debris/About_space_debris (Accessed Nov 24, 2014) ___ "Space Object Catalog" URL= http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/04/Object_catalogue (Accessed Nov 24, 2014) ___ "Space Surveillance and Tracking -SST Segment" (ESA SST) URL= http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Situational_Awareness/Space_Surveillance_and_Tracking_- _SST_Segment
  6. Fensel D. (2004) Ontologies: Silver Bullet for Knowledge Management and Electronic Commerce. 2 nd ed. Berlin, Springer International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). Ontology of Astronomical Object Types. URL= http://www.ivoa.net/documents/Notes/AstrObjectOntology/ (Accessed: March 2015)
  7. Johnson N,. Stansbery EG. (2010) The new NASA orbital debris mitigation procedural requirements and standards, Acta Astronautica 66(2010)362-367.
  8. Kelso TS, Gorski A. (2009) Space Surveillance: Lessons Learned from the Iridium-Cosmos Collision. Analytical Graphics Inc. Korea: International Astronautical Congress, 2009. URL= http://www.agi.com/resources/user-resources/downloads/white-paper.aspx?id=136 (Accessed Nov 24, 2014)
  9. Kretzenbacher M, Rathnasabapathy M, Chow T, Kamaletdinova G. (2012) Novel Approaches to International Cooperation and Data Sharing for SSA. IAC-12-A6. 63rd International Astronautical Congress, Naples, Italy. URL= http://swfound.org/media/93089/iac-12_b5_1_10_x15145_tc.pdf (Accessed Nov 24, 2014)
  10. Menzel C. (2003) Reference Ontologies -Application Ontologies: Either/Or or Both/And?. In Proceedings of the KI2003 Workshop on Reference Ontologies and Application Ontologies. National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), Orbital Debris Program Office. URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html. (Accessed Nov 24, 2014) ___ "Definition of Two-line Element Set Coordinate System" URL= http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/SSOP_Help/tle_def.html (Accessed Nov 24 2014)
  11. ___ (2008) "Handbook for Limiting Orbital Debris", NASA-Handbook 8719.14 (Accessed Nov 30, 2014) URL= http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/doctree/NHBK871914.pdf ___ National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) URL= http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov (Accessed Nov 30 2014)
  12. ___ Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQ), Vol 13, Issue 2 Apr 2009 URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv13i2.pdf (Accessed March 9, 2015) ___ Orbital Debris Quarterly News, Vol 18, Issue 1 Jan 2014, NASA URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv18i1.pdf (Accessed Nov 24, 2014)
  13. ___ Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) Ontologies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. URL= http://sweet.jpl.nasa.gov/ (Accessed: March 2015). ___ Two-line Element Set. URL= http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/SSOP_Help/tle_def.html (Accessed Nov 24, 2014) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) URL= http://www.nist.gov/ (Accessed Nov 24 2014)
  14. National Research Council. (1995) Orbital Debris: A Technical Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
  15. Pace S, and Reibaldi G.(Ed.)(2010) Future Human Spaceflight: The Need for International Cooperation International Academy of Astronautics.
  16. Pinto HS, Martins JP. (2004) Ontologies: How can They be Built?. Knowledge and Information Systems 6: 441- 464, Springer-Verlag London Ltd. doi: 10.1007/s10115-003-0138-1
  17. Pulvermacher, M.K., Brandsma, D.L. Wilson, J.R.. (October 2000) A Space Surveillance Ontology Captured in an XML Schema, MITRE, Center for Air Force C2 Systems, Bedford, Massachusetts.
  18. Quantities, Units, Dimensions and Data Types Ontologies (QUDT) URL= http://www.qudt.org/ (Accessed Nov 24 2014)
  19. Scientific American. "Space Junk" URL= http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/multimedia/0212-spacejunk/space-junk.html#page-six-reasons (Accessed March 27, 2015)
  20. Semy SK, Pulvermacher MK, Obrst LJ. (2004) Toward the Use of an Upper Ontology for U.S. Government and U.S. Military Domains: An Evaluation. MITRE Technical Report. In Workshop on Information Integration on the Web. Space Data Center (SDC) of the Space Data Association URL= www.space-data.org (Accessed Nov 30 2014)
  21. Space Safety & Sustainability Working Group (2012) Space Situational Awareness, Space Generation Advisory Council, Schwarzenbergplatz 6 Vienna A-1030 AUSTRIA URL= http://www.agi.com/resources/educational-alliance- program/curriculum_exercises_labs/SGAC_Space%20Generation%20Advisory%20Council/space_situational_awar eness.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)
  22. Staab S, Studer R (Ed.)(2009) Handbook on Ontologies, International Handbooks on Information Systems, Springer 2nd ed. Stansbery G. (2009) Orbital Debris Research in the United States. NASA Orbital Debris Program Office, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.
  23. Thanos C. (2014) Mediation: The Technological Foundation of Modern Science. Data Science Journal, Volume 13, 14. United Nations (1999) Technical Report on Space Debris, New York, A/AC.105/720, ISBN 92-1-100813-1
  24. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/library/Space%20Debris%20Mitigation%20Guidelines_COPUOS.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)
  25. S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/library/USG_OD_Standard_Practices.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)
  26. Valentijn EA, and Kleijn GV. (2006) The Astro-Wise System: A Federated Information Accumulator for Astronomy. In European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Number 65, Special: Space Exploration.
  27. Vallado DA. (2001) A Summary of Astrodynamic Standards. In AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialists Conference, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada July 30-August 2, 2001, AAS Publications Office, P.O. Box 28130, San Diego, CA 92198
  28. Vallado DA, Griesbach JD. (2011) Simulating Space Surveillance Networks. Paper AAS 11-580 presented at the AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference. July 31-August 4, Girdwood, AK. URL= http://www.agi.com/resources/user-resources/downloads/white-paper.aspx?id=144 (Accessed Nov 30, 2014) Web Ontology Language -World Wide Web Consortium URL= http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/, http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/ (Accessed Nov 30 2014)
  29. Weeden B, Kelso TS. (2009) Analysis of the Technical Feasibility of Building an International Civil Space Situational Awareness System. IAC in Daejeong, South Korea, October 12-16. URL= http://swfound.org/media/1719/iac-09_bw.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)
  30. Weeden B. (2012) Going Blind: Why America is on the Verge of Losing its Situational Awareness in Space and What Can be Done About it. Secure World Foundation. URL= http://swfound.org/media/90775/going_blind_final.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)
  31. ___ (2013) The Importance of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) For ADR and OOS. Secure World Foundation. Presentation at Singapore Conference on ADR and OOS 20, Singapore URL= http://swfound.org/media/101966/Weeden-SSA_for_ADROOS.pdf (Accessed Nov 24, 2014)
  32. ___ (2014) Space Situational Awareness Fact Sheet Sept. Secure World Foundation. URL= http://swfound.org/media/1800/swf_ssa_fact_sheet_sept2014.pdf (Accessed Nov 30, 2014)

Related papers

The Orbital Space Environment and Space Situational Awareness Domain Ontology -- Toward an International Information System For Space Data
Robert Rovetto

Proceedings of the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, 2016

The orbital space environment is home to natural and artificial satellites, debris, and space weather phenomena. As the population of orbital objects grows so do the potential hazards to astronauts, space infrastructure and spaceflight capability. Orbital debris, in particular, is a universal concern. This and other hazards can be minimized by improving global space situational awareness (SSA). By sharing more data and increasing observational coverage of the space environment we stand to achieve that goal, thereby making spaceflight safer and expanding our knowledge of near-Earth space. To facilitate data-sharing interoperability among distinct orbital debris and space object catalogs, and SSA information systems, I proposed ontology in (Rovetto, 2015) and (Rovetto and Kelso, 2016). I continue this effort toward formal representations and models of the overall domain that may serve to improve peaceful SSA and increase our scientific knowledge. This paper explains the project concept introduced in those publications, summarizing efforts to date as well as the research field of ontology development and engineering. I describe concepts for an ontological framework for the orbital space environment, near-Earth space environment and SSA domain. An ontological framework is conceived as a part of a potential international information system. The purpose of such a system is to consolidate, analyze and reason over various sources and types of orbital and SSA data toward the mutually beneficial goals of safer space navigation and scientific research. Recent internationals findings on the limitations of orbital data, in addition to existing publications on collaborative SSA, demonstrate both the overlap with this project and the need for data-sharing and integration.

View PDFchevron_right
Assessing the IADC Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines: A case for ontology-based data management
David E Gaylor

As the population of man-made debris orbiting the Earth increases, so does the risk of damaging collisions. The Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) has issued space debris mitigation guidelines including a key recommendation that before mission's end, spacecraft should move far enough from GEO so as not to be an operational hazard to other objects in active missions. It can be extremely difficult to determine if a spacecraft or operator is in compliance with this guideline, as it requires prediction of future actions based upon many data types. Furthermore, there has been no comprehensive assessment of the adequacy or validity of the IADC recommendations. The EU strives for a Code of Conduct in space, the United Nations-Committee On Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) strives for guidelines to ensure the Long Term Sustainability of Space Activities (LTSSA), the FAA is concerned with Space Traffic Management (STM), etc. If rules, policies, guidelines, and laws are put in place, how can any entity know who and what is adhering to them, when we don't even know how to quantify and assess behavior of space objects? The University of Arizona aims to address this salient issue. As part of its new Space Object Behavioral Sciences (SOBS) initiative, the University of Arizona is developing an ontology-based system to support integration, use, and sharing of space domain data. As a first use-case, we will test the system's ability to assess compliance with the IADC recommendation to move beyond GEO at the end of a mission as well as the adequacy and validity of recommendations. We describe the relevant data types gathered for this use-case, present a prototype ontology, and outline methods for combining semantic analysis with astrodynamics modeling. Without loss of generality, we present this method as an approach that will form the foundation of SOBS and be used to address pressing challenges in Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Orbital Safety, LTSSA, and STM.

View PDFchevron_right
Space Object Ontology
Robert Rovetto

This paper develops the ontology of space objects for theoretical and computational ontology applied to the space (astronautical/astronomical) domain. It follows “An ontological architecture for Orbital Debris Data” (Rovetto, 2015) and “Preliminaries of a Space Situational Awareness Ontology” (Rovetto, Kelso, 2016). Important considerations for developing a space object ontology, or more broadly, a space domain ontology are presented. The main category term ‘Space Object’ is analyzed from a philosophical perspective, and the ontological commitments of legal definitions for artificial space objects are also discussed. Space object taxonomies are offered and space object terms are defined. Part of the taxonomy of my Space Object Ontology (SOO), a computational ontology under-development using Protege ontology editor, is introduced. Given the narrow scope of an SOO, it serves as a part or module of a broader Space Situational Awareness Ontology, or alternatively an Orbital Space Environment Ontology (Rovetto, 2016).

View PDFchevron_right
Ontology Architectures for the Orbital Space Environment and Space Situational Awareness Domain
Robert Rovetto

CEUR Workshop Proceedings of the Joint Ontology Workshops 2016, 2016

This paper briefly summarizes some ontology architectures, and then demonstrates how they can be applied to the space domain, specifically the orbital space, near-earth space environment and the space situational awareness domain. Potential space ontology architectures are offered for the architectures by including space data sources and space organizations.

View PDFchevron_right
The Space Object Ontology
John Crassidis

2016

Achieving space domain awareness requires the identification, characterization, and tracking of space objects. Storing and leveraging associated space object data for purposes such as hostile threat assessment, object identification, and collision prediction and avoidance present further challenges. Space objects are characterized according to a variety of parameters including their identifiers, design specifications, components, subsystems, capabilities, vulnerabilities, origins, missions, orbital elements, patterns of life, processes, operational statuses, and associated persons, organizations, or nations. The Space Object Ontology provides a consensus-based realist framework for formulating such characterizations in a computable fashion. Space object data are aligned with classes and relations in the Space Object Ontology and stored in a dynamically updated Resource Description Framework triple store, which can be queried to support space domain awareness and the needs of spacecraft operators. This paper presents the core of the Space Object Ontology, discusses its advantages over other approaches to space object classification, and demonstrates its ability to combine diverse sets of data from multiple sources within an expandable framework. Finally, we show how the ontology provides benefits for enhancing and maintaining longterm space domain awareness.

View PDFchevron_right

Related topics

  • Systematics (Taxonomy)
  • Earth Sciences
  • Military Science
  • Space Sciences
  • Philosophy
  • Metaphysics
  • Ontology
  • Applied Ontology
  • Semantic Web Technologies
  • Informatics
  • Knowledge Management
  • Knowledge Models
  • Semantics
  • Ontology (Computer Science)
  • Ontology Development
  • Library and Information Science
  • Formal Ontology
  • Linked Data
  • Remote Sensing (Earth Sciences)
  • Data Fusion (Engineering)
  • Orbit Determination
  • Semantic Web technology - Ontolo...
  • Formal Ontology (Philosophy)
  • Earth and Space science education
  • Object Oriented Ontology
  • Space Policy
  • Astrophysics
  • Knowledge Management (Computer S...
  • Formal Semantics
  • Data Modeling
  • Data and Knowledge Modeling
  • Ontology Engineering
  • Military Studies
  • Ontology (information science)
  • Semantic Computing
  • Linked Open Data
  • Multi Sensor Data Fusion
  • Orbital/Celestial Mechanics
  • Domain Ontologies
  • Orbital Mechanics
  • Knowledge Representation and Rea...
  • Space situational awareness
  • Knowledge representation and rea...
  • Informatics engineering
  • Knowledgement Management
  • Space Ontology
  • Knowledge Graph
  • Space Domain Awareness
  • Space Domain Ontology
    • 580 California St., Suite 400
    San Francisco, CA, 94104
    © 2025 Academia. All rights reserved