Close Encounters of the LEO Kind: Spillovers and Resilience in Partially-Automated Traffic Systems

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Rao, Akhil
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Rao, Akhil
author_facet Rao, Akhil
contents Traffic systems are becoming increasingly automated. How will automated objects interact with non-automated objects? How will partially-automated systems handle large disruptions? Low-Earth orbit (LEO) -- filled with thousands of automated and non-automated satellites and many more uncontrollable pieces of debris -- offers a useful laboratory for these questions. I exploit the COSMOS-1408 (C1408) anti-satellite missile test of November 2021 -- a large and exogenous shock to the orbital environment -- to study how an unexpected disruption affects a partially-automated traffic system. I use publicly-available close approach data, network theory, and an econometric analysis of the C1408 test to study the effect of close encounters with new fragments on the configuration of objects in orbit. I document spillover effects of close encounters with C1408 fragments, heterogeneity in impacts across operators, and changes in system-level resilience to new shocks. These results shed light on the nature of partially-automated traffic systems, and provide a basis for new models to anticipate and mitigate space traffic disruptions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_04599
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Close Encounters of the LEO Kind: Spillovers and Resilience in Partially-Automated Traffic Systems
Rao, Akhil
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
General Economics
Economics
Traffic systems are becoming increasingly automated. How will automated objects interact with non-automated objects? How will partially-automated systems handle large disruptions? Low-Earth orbit (LEO) -- filled with thousands of automated and non-automated satellites and many more uncontrollable pieces of debris -- offers a useful laboratory for these questions. I exploit the COSMOS-1408 (C1408) anti-satellite missile test of November 2021 -- a large and exogenous shock to the orbital environment -- to study how an unexpected disruption affects a partially-automated traffic system. I use publicly-available close approach data, network theory, and an econometric analysis of the C1408 test to study the effect of close encounters with new fragments on the configuration of objects in orbit. I document spillover effects of close encounters with C1408 fragments, heterogeneity in impacts across operators, and changes in system-level resilience to new shocks. These results shed light on the nature of partially-automated traffic systems, and provide a basis for new models to anticipate and mitigate space traffic disruptions.
title Close Encounters of the LEO Kind: Spillovers and Resilience in Partially-Automated Traffic Systems
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.04599