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 informaiton associated with space debris.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
23 February 2021
The author's contact information has been updated.
Notes
Interoperability, the problems thereof, and the role of ontologies, have been recently discussed in Thanos (2014).
I am primarily concerned with ameliorating the orbital debris situation and ensuring safe space travel, rather than advocating a particular method toward that goal. If ontological approaches prove to be insufficient or simply unhelpful, then there should be no quarrel with seeking alternatives.
The theory of parts and wholes.
I would, however, argue that this depends not only on the requirements, goals of (and problems solved by) the ontology being developed, but whether the reused (or imported) classes accurately reflect the entities in the domain in question.
Pronounced: oh-dough
Mentioned in task 2 from section 4
At the time of this writing I have a philosophical and formal analysis of the category of Orbit in progress.
Each data element in the TLE can be decomposed into sub-parts as needed.
References
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 Mar 2015
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
Borne KD (2009) Astroinformatics: a 21st Century Approach to Astronomy - Astro2010 State of the Profession Position Paper. URL= http://arxiv.org/pdf/0909.3892v1.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
Commercial Space Operations Center (CSOC), Analytical Graphics, Inc. URL= http://comspoc.com/. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
Common Logic - International Organization for Standards URL= http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=39175. Accessed Dec 2014
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 24 Nov 2014
European Space Agency. Space debris – About. URL= http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Debris/About_space_debris. Accessed 9 June 2015
European Space Agency. Space object catalog. URL= http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2013/04/Object_catalogue. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
European Space Agency. 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
Fensel D (2004) Ontologies: silver bullet for knowledge management and electronic commerce, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin
International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA). Ontology of astronomical object types. URL= http://www.ivoa.net/documents/Notes/AstrObjectOntology/. Accessed Mar 2015
Johnson N,. Stansbery EG. The new NASA orbital debris mitigation procedural requirements and standards, Acta Astronautica 66(2010)362—367.
Keller KM, Yeung D, Baiocchi D, Welser IV W (2013) Facilitating information sharing across the international space community: lessons from behavioral sciences. RAND corporation, Santa Monica, CA. ISBN=978-0-8330-7694-6. URL= http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/TR1200/TR1255/RAND_TR1255.pdf
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 24 Nov 2014
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 24 Nov 2014
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) (2008) Handbook for limiting orbital debris, NASA-Handbook 8719.14. URL= http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codeq/doctree/NHBK871914.pdf. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) (2009) Orbital debris quarterly news (ODQ), Vol 13, Issue 2. URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv13i2.pdf. Accessed 9 Mar 2015
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) (2014) Orbital Debris Quarterly News, Vol 18, Issue 1. NASA URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv18i1.pdf Accessed 24 Nov 2014
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). Orbital Debris Program Office. URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faqs.html. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). Definition of two-line element set coordinate system. URL= http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/SSOP_Help/tle_def.html. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA). National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) URL= http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
National Aeronautical and Space Administration 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
National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Two-line element set. URL= http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/SSOP_Help/tle_def.html. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) URL= http://www.nist.gov/. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
National Research Council (1995) Orbital debris: a technical assessment. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC
Pace S, Reibaldi G (eds) (2010) Future human spaceflight: the need for International Cooperation International Academy of Astronautics
Pinto HS, Martins JP (2004) Ontologies: how can they be built? Knowl Inf Syst 6:441–464 Springer-Verlag London Ltd. doi:10.1007/s10115-003-0138-1
Protégé Ontology Editor, Stanford University. URL= http://protege.stanford.edu/. Accessed Dec 2014
Quantities, Units, Dimensions and Data Types Ontologies (QUDT) URL= http://www.qudt.org/. Accessed 24 Nov 2014
Resource Description Framework (RDF) World Wide Web Consortium. URL= http://www.w3.org/RDF/. Accessed 6 June 2015
Scientific American. Space junk. URL= http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/multimedia/0212-spacejunk/space-junk.html#page-six-reasons. Accessed 27 Mar 2015
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 30 Nov 2014
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_awareness.pdf. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
Staab S, Studer R (eds) (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
Thanos C (2014) Mediation: the technological foundation of modern science. Data Sci J 13:14
U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices URL= http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/library/USG_OD_Standard_Practices.pdf. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM). USSTRATCOM signs space-data sharing agreement with ESA, U.S. Strategic Command Public Affairs, October 31, 2014. URL= http://www.stratcom.mil/news/2014/524/USSTRATCOM_signs_Space-Data_Sharing_Agreement_with_ESA/. Accessed 6 June 2015
USSTRATCOM (2015) Germany make arrangement to share space services, data. URL= http://www.afspc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123437744. Accessed 9 June 2015
United Nations (1999) Technical Report on Space Debris, New York, A/AC.105/720, ISBN 92-1-100813-1
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (2010) 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 30 Nov 2014
Valentijn EA, 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
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
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 30 Nov 2014
Web Ontology Language (OWL) World Wide Web Consortium URL= http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/, http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
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 30 Nov 2014
Weeden B (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 24 Nov 2014
Weeden B (2014) Space situational awareness fact sheet Sept. Secure World Foundation. URL= http://swfound.org/media/1800/swf_ssa_fact_sheet_sept2014.pdf. Accessed 30 Nov 2014
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 30 Nov 2014
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the journal reviewers and editors for their constructive feedback. Thanks also to Stefano Borgo of ISTC CNR (Italy) and David Vallado of AGI (USA) for their comments and questions on earlier drafts.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by: H. A. Babaie
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rovetto, R.J. An ontological architecture for orbital debris data. Earth Sci Inform 9, 67–82 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-015-0233-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-015-0233-3