Refined orbital architecture for targets of naval interest

Download
Author
Konowicz, Andrew
Date
2015-03Advisor
Olsen, Richard C.
Scott, Alan D.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The objective of this research is to address the feasibility of designing prograde orbits for commercial electro-optical satellites. This study explores prograde orbits (inclined less than 90°) populated by small, inexpensive but proven commercial satellites, like SkySat-1 of SkyBox Imaging Inc. The benefits of using prograde orbits are increased coverage duration and decreased revisit, or gap, times for point targets at most latitudes. Disadvantages include a reduction of high-latitude target coverage (sometimes completely), a more elaborate ground architecture, and the increased expense of populating a constellation of these satellites—to mitigate the laws of orbital mechanics—in order to achieve the desired benefits of prograde inclinations. This thesis considers orbital plane inclinations of 30°, 45°, and 60°; designs a few 24-satellite prograde constellations; and compares the performance of these newly formed constellations to the traditional sun synchronous orbit. As anticipated by the orbital mechanics, the results show that annual coverage can increase up to 6.5 times, average access increases up to 6.94 per day, and revisit time can be reduced to as low as 2.0 hours. In addition, the approximate annual life-cycle cost will likely fall beneath $0.5 billion.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Single and dual burn maneuvers for low-earth-orbit maintenance
Hernandez, Andrew A. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 1994-12);Optimal control theory suggests maintaining an orbital altitude band for Low-Earth-Orbiting (LEO) satellites using periodic thrusting than forced Keplerian motion, i.e. a trajectory obtained by thrust-drag cancellation. ... -
Modelling of picosatellite constellation-based network and effects on quality of service
Chiew, Jingyi (Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2015-03);The military applications for miniature, low-cost satellites that could be quickly launched to provide ad-hoc tactical networks have risen in recent years. Currently, the smallest practical variant of these miniaturized ... -
Hypervelocity impact analysis of International Space Station Whipple and Enhanced Stuffed Whipple Shields
Kalinski, Michael E. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2004-12);The International Space Station (ISS) must be able to withstand the hypervelocity impacts of micrometeoroids and orbital debris that strike its many surfaces. In order to design and implement shielding which will prevent ...