First Steps in Refining the Automation of Preliminary Orbital Determination using Asteroids 2023 RD and 2023 UJ7

Determining preliminary orbits is integral in the process of designating new solar system objects (SSOs). This designation process can be improved through automation, and the level of automation efficiency relies on refining the basic parameters governing the submissions of observational data. The preliminary orbital determination methods cited in this paper require the submission of at least three distinct observations in order to have the capability of producing an initial orbit. We found that having greater time between observations helps reduce error in the computed initial orbit. However, the minimum time between the first and last observation allowing a preliminary orbit to be computed has yet to be researched. The Gauss [Gro04] and Laplace [Gro09] methods were used in addition to a higher order polynomial (degree 8) method to investigate how preliminary orbits changed with different time spans between observations. We ran a preliminary orbital determination process on different batches of observations of two asteroids designated 2023 RS and 2023 UJ7. The results of the test batches yielded the key result that both objects could have had preliminary orbits computed with fewer observations than were used in reality. This has valuable implications for planetary defense efforts especially concerning the near-earth asteroid 2023 RS.