Multi-Level Firing with Spiking Neural Network for Orbital Maneuver Detection

Orbital maneuver detection is critical for space situational awareness, yet it remains challenging due to the complex and dynamic nature of satellite behaviors. This paper proposes a novel Multi-Level Firing Spiking Neural Network (MLF-SNN) for detecting orbital maneuvers based on changes in satellite orbital parameters. The MLF-SNN incorporates multiple firing thresholds and a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron model to enhance temporal feature extraction and classification performance. The MLF-SNN encodes time-dependent input features, which include variations in orbital elements, and subsequently processes these features through a multi-layer spiking architecture. A surrogate gradient approach is adopted during training to enable end-to-end backpropagation through the spiking layers. Experimental results on real satellite data demonstrate that the proposed method achieves improved recall in maneuver detection compared to conventional approaches, effectively reducing false alarms and missed detections. The work highlights the potential of MLF-SNN in processing time-series spatial data and offers a robust solution for autonomous satellite behavior analysis.