A review of uncertainty propagation in orbital mechanics

Orbital uncertainty propagation plays an important role in space situational awareness related missions such as tracking and data association, conjunction assessment, sensor resource management and anomaly detection. Linear models and Monte Carlo simulation were primarily used to propagate uncertainties. However, due to the nonlinear nature of orbital dynamics, problems such as low precision and intensive computation have greatly hampered the application of these methods. Aiming at solving these problems, many nonlinear uncertainty propagators have been proposed in the past two decades. To motivate this research area and facilitate the development of orbital uncertainty propagation, this paper summarizes the existing linear and nonlinear uncertainty propagators and their associated applications in the field of orbital mechanics. Frameworks of methods for orbital uncertainty propagation, the advantages and drawbacks of different methods, as well as potential directions for future efforts are also discussed.