Design of Constellations for Earth Observation with Intersatellite Links

摘要

In this work, constellations were analyzed and designed for the Earth observation mission with intersatellite links. Before the optimization process, the geometric characteristics of intersatellite links (ISLs) were investigated to check the feasibility of the system and find suitable values for y. The genetic algorithms technique with the 2-D lattice flower constellation theory was used to find the best constellation for the mission. An optimal satellite constellation was found by minimizing the mean response time with global continuous connectivity and minimum distance constraint. The algorithm was proposed using a modified adjacency matrix based on the graphic theory, which could simplify the evaluation of connectivity through investigating only interorbit ISLs. To perform the optimization process efficiently, the mean response time based on quasi-uniform distribution points was evaluated. It was found that the proposed constellation provided good observational performance with global continuous connectivity from two ground stations.