Next-Gen Space-Based Surveillance: Blockchain for Trusted and Efficient Debris Tracking

TL;DR

The paper tackles the rising problem of space debris and the limits of centralized space-domain awareness by proposing a blockchain-based, space-based surveillance architecture. It adopts a sequential ledger and a role-based consensus to optimize throughput and latency, supported by a network model that integrates with optical debris tracking and ISL-based communication. Key findings show that around $N=24$ satellites with a selective verification/approval scheme yields up to $\approx 1931$ TX/s and sub-10 s consensus delays, roughly a $9\times$ improvement over fully participatory approaches. The approach enables near real-time debris data validation and secure, tamper-resistant logging, with Walker Star topology delivering the best performance across evaluated configurations.

Abstract

The increasing congestion of Earth's orbit due to growing satellite deployments and space debris poses a significant challenge to sustainable space operations. Traditional space surveillance systems rely on centralized architectures, which introduce single points of failure and scalability constraints. This paper proposes a blockchain-based solution where satellites function as nodes with distinct roles to validate and securely store debris-tracking data. Simulation results indicate that optimal network performance is achieved with approximately 30 nodes, balancing throughput and response time, representing an approximately 9x improvement over traditional consensus mechanisms.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: Blockchain functional flow.
• Figure 2: Overview of the proposed network.
• Figure 3: Throughput results for different network sizes.
• Figure 4: Response time results for different network sizes.