Goddard Engineering and Technology Directorate

Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA)

Illustration: NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) support to spacecraft is two-fold: pre-launch support and on-orbit support.
Illustration: NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) support to spacecraft is two-fold: pre-launch support and on-orbit support.

Enhancing Space Mission Safety and Mitigating Collision Risks for Non-Human Spaceflight Missions

NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) is an Agency-level resource that provides support to all NASA non-Human Spaceflight missions.

For over 20 years, the NASA CARA program has been responsible for risk assessment and mitigation support for the Agency’s non-Human Spaceflight Missions, spanning both pre-  and post-launch analysis and support in accordance to NPR 8079.1 (NASA Spacecraft Conjunction Analysis and Collision Avoidance for Space Environment Protection) https://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/displayDir.cfm?t=NPR&c=8079&s=1 . For pre-launch support, CARA helps the missions select candidate orbits that meet mission objectives while considering safety from close approaches with other satellites and debris. Post-launch, CARA provides conjunction analysis and collision avoidance mitigation services. We provide 24/7 operational support for the NASA and partnered Missions, by processing the missions’ ephemeris and covariance data that is sent  to the Orbital Safety Analysts at Vandenberg Space Force Base. These analysts screen the ephemerides against the catalog of tracked objects and provide CARA with data for any close approaches predicted to occur between a CARA-protected asset and any other object within a specified volume.  CARA performs risk analysis on these results and shares the data and analysis results with the mission, assisting as needed with any mitigation plan.

The CARA team’s capabilities include:

  • Software and Ground Systems Team
    • Design the CARA Operational System Architecture, performs software development of operations tools, and perform the Ground Systems’ troubleshooting and maintenance.
  • System Administration
    • Performs patching of CARA’s Cloud-based infrastructure on the operating environments and other security requirements.
  • Operations Team
    • Engage with missions to support pre-launch analysis and simulations as well as providing post-launch on-orbit operational support.
  • Analysis and Research & Development
    • Performs technical research and algorithm development for operations support, performs on-orbit CA operations event analysis, and identifies and analyzes areas for novel implementation.
  • Orbital Safety Analysts
    • Perform screenings of NASA missions against the Space Catalog, create scripts to process tracking data in support of analysis, and perform orbit data actionability assessments.

With the ever-increasing number of space objects and debris, CARA serves an important role at NASA by both protecting missions from conjunctions and protecting the space environment for future missions.

For additional information, monthly conjunction statistics updates and sample code and tools, please visit https://www.nasa.gov/conjunction-assessment/

Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) activities within ETD are managed by
Mission Engineering & System Analysis Division (Code 590)