Continuous Global N-Tuple Coverage with (2N = 2) Satellites

摘要

This report is an annotated briefing covering research on arrays or constellations of satellites giving n-tuple continuous, global-line-of-sight coverage of a planet using the minimum number of satellites. A generalized theory was developed which appears to fit cases for any level of redundancy. Except for the case for single coverage, which is a tetrahedral array, all of the constellations can be characterized as either skew- or congruent-prismoidal arrays. The constellation altitudes increase with increasing levels of redundancy. Keywords: Satellites; Constellations; Coverage; Continuous coverage; Global coverage; Minimum satellite coverage; Arrays; Networks. (jhd)