They fly thousands of kilometers above us, providing us with information every second: satellites. Whether for weather forecasting, navigation, air traffic control, or communication: they are used everywhere – including as early warning systems for natural disasters.

The THMresearch group MASSATS (Modelling and Assessment of Space Surveillance and Tracking Systems) is researching digital twins for space surveillance and orbit tracking. For Space Day, the students, led by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Guido Bartsch, offered a workshop simulating fragmentation in space and recording its effects. This is the process by which an object, such as a satellite or a rocket, breaks apart into many pieces.

To illustrate this, the students used a simulation during the workshop: A large screen displayed numerous green satellites orbiting the Earth. "We don't have traffic laws in space," explained one of the students involved in the project. "That's why 24/7 monitoring in space is extremely important."

The challenge: Satellites are located in space, an area not under sovereign control and only partially monitored. Up there, however, are many man-made objects that can pose a problem for functioning satellites: space debris. This debris comes from old, abandoned satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments. Student Manuel Wächtershäuser explains: "These pieces can collide with the satellites, permanently damage them, and create further space debris."

The more satellites are launched into space, the more complex their monitoring and management becomes – the sheer volume of data is simply overwhelming. Using simulation, the students aim to better understand the structure of different orbits and investigate the effects of fragmentation. This will also allow them to capture the impact of collisions.

The MASSATS team is based at the Institute for Technology and Information at THM and aims to assess the resilience of these systems to space-related physical influences.