Adaptation of ISO 23247 to Aerospace Digital Twin Applications-On-Orbit Collision Avoidance and Space-Based Debris Detection

Abstract

As interest in digital engineering within a variety of technical domains begins to accelerate, industries continue to encounter obstacles with regard to implementing—and benefiting from digital twin technologies. One key challenge facing digital twin adoption in the aerospace industry, in particular, is a lack of standardized digital twin frameworks (DTFs). Adapting existing DTF standards intended for use in other domains towards aerospace applications may offer a path forward for overcoming this obstacle. To demonstrate the feasibility of this approach, the recently published ISO 23247 standard, Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing, is adapted for the first time for use in a non-manufacturing aerospace application—collision avoidance (COLA) in low Earth orbit (LEO) for resident space objects (RSOs) greater than 10 cm in characteristic length. The result is the first known formal representation in a standardized digital twin framework of this well-established prescriptive COLA process. To further demonstrate the value of establishing a standard aerospace DTF, this framework is, in turn, adapted into a novel descriptive digital twin architecture for space-based detection of sub-10-cm-class orbital debris, which can later be integrated with the existing collision avoidance framework to improve overall space situational awareness (SSA). The paper concludes with recommendations for future work on the development of increasingly sophisticated digital twins of the LEO space environment, leveraging these frameworks as a baseline.