Scientists map out all possible orbits between Earth and Moon
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Lab used supercomputers to find nearly 97,000 stable orbits in the space between Earth and the Moon.
Each of a million simulated trajectories was propagated for up to six years, and the resulting open dataset can be used for mission planning, space domain awareness, and to identify busiest intersections or useful observation positions as low Earth orbit gets busier.
Research team let data speak for itself
The team ran their calculations on Quartz and Ruby supercomputers—crunching what would take one computer 182 years into just three days.
Lead researcher Travis Yeager shared, "We tried to go into it pretending we knew nothing about this space. ", meaning they let the data speak for itself without guessing.
Database could help avoid collisions in low Earth orbit
This new database could make planning satellite missions easier and safer by predicting how orbits might change or get crowded.
It's also a handy tool for machine learning to spot risky orbits before problems happen—which is notable given estimates that low Earth orbit could safely support up to about 100,000 satellites.