空间碎片是航天器正常运行的主要安全隐患。地基观测手段可以对大目标空间碎片进行探测和识别编目, 保障航天器运行安全。但对于1~10 cm的微小碎片, 主要采用天基光学观测手段。针对微小碎片, 结合红外探测和可见光识别两种方式实现微小碎片的远距离探测和识别过程。首先, 通过计算给出了红外探测光学系统的设计参数, 利用恒星背景和碎片目标的角速度的差别, 提出了一种剔除背景的方法。然后, 窄视场可见光聚焦观测每个碎片, 记录和提取其9个不同角度的角点特征, 用于目标识别。通过数值仿真和实验验证, 提出的算法可以有效的探测和识别微小碎片。

Space debris is becoming a major potential safety hazard for spacecraft in normal operation. Large space debris can be detected and identified by ground-based observation methods to guarantee the operation safety of the spacecraft. Space-based optical detection method is mainly used to detect small space debris with the size of 1~10 cm. According to small space debris, combing infrared and visible light detection modes, remote detection and identification processes for small space debris are realized. The design parameters of infrared detection optical systems are proposed through calculating. A background elimination method is proposed according to the angular velocity difference between stars in the background and space debris target. And the space debris is observed by narrow field of view visible light focus method to record and extract the corner features of nine different angles to identify targets. Value simulation and experimental demonstration show that the small space debris can be detected and identified by the proposed algorithm effectively.