Research on Engineering Location of Rocket Debris Based on Multilateral Measurement Technology

With the increasing number of space missions, the accurate location and recovery of rocket debris have become increasingly important. Traditional GPS and radar systems struggle to ensure the accuracy and reliability of positioning in complex and changeable environments, making the task of locating rocket debris highly challenging. This study aims to accurately locate the sonic booms of rocket debris using multilateral measurement technology and multiple monitoring devices. Based on the basic positioning of a single piece of debris, we first constructed a three-dimensional positioning model using the Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA). By applying the least squares method, the sonic boom time data captured by the monitoring device was obtained and traced back to the debris location. To simulate real-world scenarios more closely, this study introduced the Hungarian algorithm to solve the data association problem of multi-source signals in multi-rocket debris scenes and achieved the locking of each debris location through an optimization framework. Furthermore, to address the positioning problem when four rocket remnants exist simultaneously, positioning accuracy was improved by introducing a joint optimization strategy for position and time, along with a random error processing mechanism. When the model deals with multiple debris locations, the time difference is less than 5 seconds, and the positioning error is less than 200 meters. Our research has explored a set of methodologies for the difficult technical problem of rocket debris location, which is also applicable to similar multi-source location problems, and will contribute to improving the efficiency and safety of rocket recovery.