Feasibility of the Military Space Plane for Rapid Response Surveillance and Reconnaissance Satellite Constellation Deployment

摘要

As United States' reliance on space systems increases, new means of providing and protecting these systems becomes more critical. The military space plane is one portion of the search for flexible and inexpensive space access, which is the foundation in almost all areas of space activity. This investigation studies the feasibility of the space plane for providing space access for the purposes of national defense, forward presence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It does so by performing an analysis between satellite constellation deployment time and satellite constellation coverage characteristics. First, an analytical coverage analysis on a specific constellation design and the reasoning behind it is provided. From this, general satellite coverage conclusions are drawn which are then verified with simulation software. A timing analysis is then performed taking into account times for launch, plane change, satellite phasing, as well as theoretical MSP turn around. The final results include nine satellite constellation scenarios that provide reasonable coverage characteristics along with their theoretical deployment times. It turns out that the main driving force behind the constellation set up and timing is the latitude of the target location. This latitude dictates the inclination of the orbit, which in turn affects the type of constellation, the number of satellites, as well as the number of SMVs and MSPs. Once these variables are known, timing is calculated based on availability, turn around time, and earth rotation rate.