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AAS 12-015SPACE OBJECT AREA-TO-MASS RATIO ESTIMATIONUSING MULTIPLE MODEL APPROACHESRichard Linares, * Moriba K. Jah † and John L. Crassidis ‡In this paper two multiple model approaches are applied to estimate the effectivearea-to-mass ratio of a space object. Both multiple-model adaptive estimation and a newapproach called adaptive likelihood mixtures are used in this work. Multiple model approacheshave been used extensively used in target tracking applications since they candetect abrupt changes in the models governing the target’s motion. Since thearea-to-mass ratio is a function of the projected Sun facing area, which is a function ofthe orientation of the space object, then the effective area-to-mass ratio is time varying.It is difficult to estimate the time varying nature of the area-to-mass ratio using traditionalestimators. Therefore multiple model approaches are proposed here. Simulationresults are shown for different scenarios and good performance is given to determinethe effective area-to-mass ratios as, well as their changes over time. [View Full Paper]* Graduate Student, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, State Universityof New York, Amherst, New York 14260-4400, U.S.A. E-mail: arp27@buffalo.edu, Student Member AAS andAIAA.† Director, Advanced Sciences and Technology Research Institute for Astrodynamics (ASTRIA), Air ForceResearch Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, 87117, U.S.A. Member AAS, Associate Fellow AIAA.‡ Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, State University of NewYork, Amherst, New York 14260-4400, U.S.A. E-mail: johnc@buffalo.edu, Member AAS, Associate FellowAIAA.6