Research on elaborate image simulation method for close-range space target

In order to meet the urgent needs of target image data in the testing of close-range space target situational awareness algorithm, an elaborate image simulation method that fully considers the target surface texture structure is proposed. First, the physical mechanism is analysed by constructing a radiation transmission model. Then, Phong and five-parameters BRDF models are adopted to characterize the optical properties of the material. The geometric characteristic of texture structure is also characterized through displacement mapping. Finally, the sequence images of the space target are obtained by simulation based on the designed simulation process and given imaging conditions. The CPU multi-core parallel acceleration based on the Embree engine is taken to compensate for the speed reduction caused by the increase in the number of model faces. Compared with the measured image in orbit for verification, the image simulation similarity is above 80%. The results show that the simulation method in this article can better describe the characteristics of the target in the actual on-orbit environment and meet the near real-time simulation requirements of the system, providing a more realistic image data source for the ground test of the on-orbit service technology.