Big impacts and big data: Addressing the challenges of managing DebriSat's characterization data

DebriSat is an ongoing project that will address the orbital debris dilemma by providing new data to update existing orbital impact breakup models. Currently, the project is in the post-impact phase. During this phase, debris generated from the hypervelocity impact phase of the project will be extracted, measured, logged, and characterized. The amount of data generated by the characterization of this data is massive and will only continue to increase. To address the challenge of managing this overwhelming amount of data, a data management infrastructure is created, consisting of a back-end data management service and a front-end user interface. This paper will discuss the process of designing and developing this data management infrastructure. This paper will also describe some of the challenges encountered during and after development of the infrastructure and how these challenges were approached and eventually solved. This paper aims to use the design of this data management system and the pitfalls encountered during its development to provide the community with a precedence and framework for addressing big data challenges similar to those posed by DebriSat.