IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2022 - 18

Maximization of LEO Nanosatellite's Transmission Capacity to Multiple Ground Stations
calibration and a high number of contacts with all ground
telescopes. For the identified optimal configuration, the
mean visibility time for each station is greater than 238 s,
and at least one passage per day is guaranteed for each
ground telescope. Following a waterfall approach, this
article analyses the requested performance in terms of
manoeuvre velocity and needed torques to achieve the
tracking of the TUT position during the passage of the satellite
above it, which was proved to be more convenient
than always maintaining a nadir-pointing configuration.
The results of the simulations show that the requested
angular rate is 0.75/s, the requested RW momentum storage
is 1 mN ms and the requested torque is 1:6 105 N
m, all these values are compatible with many COTS
ADCS targeted to CubeSat standard. Moreover, the preselected
ADCS system, the CubeADCS, achieves the overall
pointing accuracy of 4 arcmin requested for calibrating
purposes. Taken together, these findings are the following:
1) were consistent with those relative to similar missions;
2) allowed the preliminary design of the ACS to be
implemented in the orbital calibrator;
3) suggests that no additional tip-tilt stages are requested
for calibrator pointing, reducing the overall cost and
mass.
In future work, a more precise model could be implemented
in which, for example, the gravitational field harmonic's
discretization could be limited to higher factors
than J2, and in which the atmospheric drag could be considered.
In addition, different criteria thanfirst-come-firstserved
could be implemented to choose, which TUT to
track during simultaneous contact windows in order to satisfy
mission-specific needs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding
agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit
sectors.
REFERENCES
[1] W. J. Larson and J. R. Wertz, " Orbit and constellation
design, " in Space Mission Analysis and Design, 2nd ed.
Torrance, CA, USA: Microcosm, Inc., pp. 157-195, 1995.
[2] J. R. Wertz, " 10 orbit and constellation design-selecting the
right orbit, " in SpaceMission Engineering: TheNew SMAD.
Hawthorne, CA: MicrocosmPress, 2011, pp. 251-254.
[3] M. S. Bottkol and P. B. Didomenico, " A phase-based
approach to the satellite revisit problem, " in Proc.
AAS/AIAA Spaceflight Mechanics Meeting,1991,
pp. 865-884.
18
[4] Y. Ulybyshev, " Geometric analysis and design method
for discontinuous coverage satellite constellations, " J.
Guid., Control, Dyn., vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 549-557, 2014,
doi: 10.2514/1.60756.
[5] Y. Ulybyshev, " General analysis method for discontinuous
coverage satellite constellations, " J. Guid., Control, Dyn.,
vol. 38, no. 12, pp. 2475-2483, 2015, doi: 10.2514/1.
G001254.
[6] Y. N. Razoumny, " Fundamentals of the route theory for
satellite constellation design for earth discontinuous
coverage. Part 1, Analytic emulation of the earth
coverage, " Acta Astronautica, vol. 128, pp. 722-740,
2016, doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2016.07.013.
[7] J. G. Walker, " Circular orbit patterns providing continuous
whole earth coverage, " Royal Aircraft Establishment,
Farnborough, U.K., Tech. Rep. 70211, 1970.
[8] G. V. Mozhaev, " The problem of the continuous earth
coverage and the kinematically regular satellite networks.
I, " Cosmic Res., vol. 11, p. 755, 1973.
[9] T. J. Lang, " Symmetric circular orbit satellite constellations
for continuous global coverage, " in Proc. AAS/AIAA
Astrodynamics Conf., pp. 1111-1132, 1988.
[10] P. G. Buzzi, D. Selva, N. Hitomi, and W. J. Blackwell,
" Assessment of constellation designs for earth observation:
Application to the tropics mission, " Acta Astronautica,
vol. 161, pp. 166-182, 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.
actaastro.2019.05.007.
[11] T. Qin, M. Macdonald, and D. Qiao, " Fully decentralized
cooperative navigation for spacecraft constellations, "
IEEE Trans. Aerosp. Electron. Syst., vol. 57, no. 4,
pp. 2383-2394, Aug. 2021.
[12] M. Guan, T. Xu, F. Gao, W. Nie, and H. Yang, " Optimal
walker constellation design of LEO-based global navigation
and augmentation system, " Remote Sens., vol. 12,
no. 11, 2020, Art. no. 1845, doi: 10.3390/rs12111845.
[13] C. Zhang, J. Jin, L. Kuang, and J. Yan, " Leo constellation
design methodology for observing multi-targets, " Astrodynamics,
vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 121-131, 2018, doi: 10.1007/
s42064-017-0015-4.
[14] J. Ma, Y. Meng, X. Zhu, S. HE, and Y. GAO, " Optimal
design of low-earth-orbit satellite constellation for regional
fast revisit, " Scientia Sinica Technologica, vol. 48, no. 2,
pp. 170-184, 2017, doi: 10.1360/N092017-00026.
[15] Z. Song, H. Liu, G. Dai, M. Wang, and X. Chen, " Cell
area-based method for analyzing the coverage capacity of
satellite constellations, " Int. J. Aerosp. Eng., vol. 2021,
2021, Art. no. 6679107, doi: 10.1155/2021/6679107.
[16] F. Ma et al., " Hybrid constellation design using a genetic
algorithm for a leo-based navigation augmentation system, "
GPS Solutions, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 1-14, 2020,
doi: 10.1007/s10291-020-00977-0.
[17] C. Dai, G. Zheng, and Q. Chen, " Satellite constellation
design with multi-objective genetic algorithm for regional
terrestrial satellite network, " China Commun., vol. 15,
no. 8, pp. 1-10, 2018, doi: 10.1109/CC.2018.8438269.
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
AUGUST 2022
IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - August 2022
