Abstract:

The space debris is the collection of objects running at hypervelocity in orbit around the earth, therefore the space debris detection system mounted on spacecraft has to be of lowcost and fast algorithm for data analysis and processing. Based on the basic theory of computer binocular stereo vision, an infrared detection system for space debris of two infrared detectors is presented and a corresponding position algorithm of spacepointobject is given. According to the characteristic that the two images from two infrared detectors have the same background, image subtraction is applied to background subtraction so as to simplify the edge detection algorithm. By edge detection for the space debris images, the center positions of the space debris in the two images are educed, and consequently the position of the space debris in spacecraft reference frame is determined by means of the position algorithm of space point objects. The infrared detection system not only is of lowcost, but also can realize fast position. Simulation result validates the feasibility of the system and its corresponding position algorithm.