Date of Award

Fall 2025

Access Type

Thesis - Open Access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Thomas Alan Lovell

Committee Chair Email

lovel7e5@erau.edu

First Committee Member

Troy Henderson

First Committee Member Email

hendert5@erau.edu

Second Committee Member

Morad Nazari

Second Committee Member Email

nazarim@erau.edu

College Dean

James W. Gregory

Abstract

The knowledge of what lies in orbit around Earth is at best a guess. Decades of spaceflight, debris buildup, and vehicle collisions have contributed to a large number of objects that are simply not able to be catalogued. Ongoing efforts to catalog debris in orbit have reached limits by conventional measures and as such, research is active in the field of in-orbit space situational awareness. This thesis intends to help fill a hole in the development of such orbital platforms by assisting the development of image processing software pipelines though the simulation of unresolved space imagery. The simulation uses accurate satellite propagation coupled with an extensive star catalog to allow for a realistic view of how objects should appear to an orbital platform. To prove this, a simulation and rendering tool was developed to showcase the need for simulated data when validating software designed to process unresolved imagery. From orbital propagation to rendering and rasterizing objects on a camera sensor, the start to finish process is fully encapsulated by the designed tool. Although this is a first iteration, the tool proved the potential for even more robust methods of data generation for the validation of image processing software pipelines and can only gain accuracy as development continues.

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