The Optimum Planning of Search for a Space Object Taking into Account the Temporal Structural Transformation of the Space Object Current Position Uncertainty Domain

At the First European Conference on Space Debris (Darmstadt, 1993) a presentation was made on development of the theory for optimum planning the search for a space object by rough a priori orbital information with the help of narrow-angle and narrow-beam facilities [1]. The kernel of this theory is the principle of equivalence of the possible search plan elements for different times [2]. Then the theory was developed up to the constructive methods and working search programs for one important case - namely for the assumption of predominant state vector error propagation along the track and neglecting the other errors [3]. As a result, some programs for optimum planning the search for highly elliptical space objects were worked out. These programs were successfully implemented many years ago at the Irkutsk optical station and in 2003 at the electro-optical complex "Okno" in Tajikistan. The report on the test results of these programs was presented at the 4th European Conference on Space Debris in Darmstadt [4]. In this paper the theory and methods are generalized onto the most common case of the state vector error character, the optimum properties of methods being retained.