Correlation-based constellations of satellites for local telecommunication and monitoring services
Аuthors
*, **La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
*e-mail: mauro.pontani@uniroma1.it
**e-mail: paolo.teofilatto@uniroma1.it
Abstract
Low Earth orbit constellations deserve several advantages with respect to geostationary platforms, i.e. lower costs for satellite development and launch, increased imaging resolution, as well as reduced power requirements and signal time delays. This research is concerned with an original method for constellation design, based on the use of a correlation function. All satellites are placed in repeating ground track orbits, and two conflicting requirements are considered: the maximization of the maximum continuous coverage and the minimization of the maximum revisit time of a target area located on Earth surface. A suitable way of determining the related optimal constellation configurations is based on avoiding overlapping between visible passes of distinct satellites. With this intent, an analytic expression can be derived for the correlation function, which is employed to evaluate the overlapping between visible passes. Then an algorithmic search for the zeros of this function allows determining some constellation configurations with the desired characteristics. This heuristic method turns out to be a successful approach for constellation design and several results are reported with reference to different latitudes of the target area and distinct repeating orbits.Download