Design of Small Satellite Constellations for Data Communication

Abstract

The main idea of this project is to develop techniques to find good options for constellations of small satellites that cover platforms that send data to satellites and ground stations that receive data from satellites at shorter intervals. These studies must be combined with the results obtained from satellite failure probability models developed by experts from the Università degli Studi di Firenze, who have studied this problem in the ADVANCE project. The combined results should be able to allow the design of constellations of satellites that can perform its tasks adequately even in the scenarios of failures of some satellites and see how those failures degrade the mission.We have freedom to choose the inclination, eccentricity, altitude, number of satellites and number of planes to distribute those satellites in the constellation. Next, a study needs to be made to verify the effects of orbital perturbations in the results obtained. Important factors like the flattening of the Earth, atmospheric drag, etc, affects the orbits of the individual satellites, so the geometry of the constellation. In particular, the satellites need to be in different inclinations to cover different latitudes in the Earth, and this will lead to different effects of the perturbation due to the flattening of the Earth, which means that the geometry of the constellation will change with time and the minimum interval between passages will increase. To solve these problems we have basically two possibilities: 1) To make orbital maneuvers to adjust the location of the satellites; 2) To add more satellites to the constellation to increase the coverage. Those options need to be studied in more detail.