The Bootstrap Estimation of the Accuracy of Preliminary Orbit Determination

From the point of view of the non-parametric statistics, a general estimation method of the accuracy and confidence interval of preliminary orbit determination is proposed for the occasion without any other information but observational data. Based on the bootstrap method, the estimation relies only on the observational data and does not require the precise orbit determination as a reference, or the assumption of normal distribution of observational errors. Numerical experiments show that this method is very simple in implementa- tion, and may serve as an easy accuracy evaluation for the preliminary orbit determination and for the follow-up employments.