I was employed on a project aimed to improve the accuracy with which we can predict the re-entry of derelict rocket bodies in a particular type of orbit (geostationary-transfer orbit, GTO). This is a notoriously difficult but important problem - at present, we cannot issue any actionable warnings to mitigate the risk such re-entries pose to the ground population. I explain more about the topic in this article. This project wasn't aimed at delivering concrete solutions to improve the re-entry prediction accuracy. However, we did a pretty good job at it and we've been paid to take our research up a notch and incorporate the software that we've developed into existing code base at the European Space Operations Centre.
In particular, my algorithms (described in this paper) have turned out to be immediately useful to ESA, and so I'm moving to Germany to deploy them at ESOC. These algorithms analyse a time-series of ephemerides and detect changes in it, e.g. caused by explosions, collisions or other events that physically affect the object. I'm really glad I got to work on this because the same algorithms are used to monitoring health of physical systems, e.g. satellites. My ultimate ambition is to work in spacecraft operations, and this experience will come in useful.
In particular, my algorithms (described in this paper) have turned out to be immediately useful to ESA, and so I'm moving to Germany to deploy them at ESOC. These algorithms analyse a time-series of ephemerides and detect changes in it, e.g. caused by explosions, collisions or other events that physically affect the object. I'm really glad I got to work on this because the same algorithms are used to monitoring health of physical systems, e.g. satellites. My ultimate ambition is to work in spacecraft operations, and this experience will come in useful.
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