Effect of Time Separation between Observations on Angles-only Preliminary Orbit Determination

Preliminary orbit determination of unknown space object such as satellites that are launched by other countries, military satellites and uncatalogued Space debris is important in space activities. So by means of information of ground based electro-optics systems, orbital elements of satellite can be estimated accurately. In this paper we studied most famous three methods of classical orbit determination analytically which are based on angles-only observations of orbit. Then, by using observable data and simulations, results of computational codes of three methods are compared and the effect of time separation between observed points of satellite path is demonstrated and results are analyzed.