Abstract
In the past, researchers using the streets of coverage (SOC) and Walker methods for generating optimal satellite constellations have published constellations with the minimum number of total satellites for continuous global coverage. The real goal of constellation optimization, however, is to reduce the overall system cost. In some cases this will occur for the minimum total number of satellites, but other real world considerations (such as sparing strategy or launch vehicle multiple satellite manifesting) may drive the constellation selection process to other solutions. This paper presents tables of constellations, optimized for continuous global coverage (1- to 4-fold), for 5 to 100 satellites and all numbers of orbital planes. These expanded tables for the SOC and Walker methods allow the mission planner more choices in minimizing overall system cost. By simple filtering and sorting of the tables, it is shown how constellations can be selected to account for these real world considerations. A comparison is made between the constellations produced by these two methods in the light of some common real world considerations.
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Lang, T.J., Adams, W.S. (1998). A Comparison of Satellite Constellations for Continuous Global Coverage. In: van der Ha, J.C. (eds) Mission Design & Implementation of Satellite Constellations. Space Technology Proceedings, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5088-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5088-0_5
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