scholarly journals Cost-Efficient LEO Navigation Augmentation Constellation Design under a Constrained Deployment Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jing Ren ◽  
Dan Sun ◽  
Deng Pan ◽  
Mingtao Li ◽  
Jianhua Zheng

The advantages of the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite include low-latency communications, shorter positioning time, higher positioning accuracy, and lower launching, building, and maintenance costs. Thus, the introduction of LEO satellite constellation as a regional navigation augmentation system for the current navigation constellations is studied in this paper. To achieve the navigation performance requirement with the least system cost, a synthetic approach is presented to design and deploy a cost-efficient LEO navigation augmentation constellation over 108 key cities. To achieve lower construction costs, the constellation is designed to be deployed by constrained piggyback launches, which brings additional complexity to the constellation design. Two optimization models with discrete and continuous performance indices are established. They are solved by the genetic algorithm and differential evolution algorithm, and both Walker and Flower constellations are adopted. Results for 77 and 70 satellites are obtained. During the construction phase, a synthesis procedure containing five impulses is proposed by utilizing natural drift under J 2 perturbation. This work presents a method for designing the optimal LEO navigation constellation under a constraint deployment approach with the lowest construction cost and a strategy to deploy the constellation economically.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1702
Author(s):  
Kévin Barbieux ◽  
Olivier Hautecoeur ◽  
Maurizio De Bartolomei ◽  
Manuel Carranza ◽  
Régis Borde

Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) are an important input to many Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. EUMETSAT derives AMVs from several of its orbiting satellites, including the geostationary satellites (Meteosat), and its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. The algorithm extracting the AMVs uses pairs or triplets of images, and tracks the motion of clouds or water vapour features from one image to another. Currently, EUMETSAT LEO satellite AMVs are retrieved from georeferenced images from the Advanced Very-High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board the Metop satellites. EUMETSAT is currently preparing the operational release of an AMV product from the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) on board the Sentinel-3 satellites. The main innovation in the processing, compared with AVHRR AMVs, lies in the co-registration of pairs of images: the images are first projected on an equal-area grid, before applying the AMV extraction algorithm. This approach has multiple advantages. First, individual pixels represent areas of equal sizes, which is crucial to ensure that the tracking is consistent throughout the processed image, and from one image to another. Second, this allows features that would otherwise leave the frame of the reference image to be tracked, thereby allowing more AMVs to be derived. Third, the same framework could be used for every LEO satellite, allowing an overall consistency of EUMETSAT AMV products. In this work, we present the results of this method for SLSTR by comparing the AMVs to the forecast model. We validate our results against AMVs currently derived from AVHRR and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI). The release of the operational SLSTR AMV product is expected in 2022.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-106
Author(s):  
Chongyuan Hou ◽  
Yuan Yang ◽  
Yikang Yang ◽  
Kaizhong Yang ◽  
Xiao Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe increase in space debris orbiting Earth is a critical problem for future space missions. Space debris removal has thus become an area of interest, and significant research progress is being made in this field. However, the exorbitant cost of space debris removal missions is a major concern for commercial space companies. We therefore propose the debris removal using electromagnetic launcher (DREL) system, a ground-based electromagnetic launch system (railgun), for space debris removal missions. The DREL system has three components: a ground-based electromagnetic launcher (GEML), suborbital vehicle (SOV), and mass of micrometer-scale dust (MSD) particles. The average cost of removing a piece of low-earth orbit space debris using DREL was found to be approximately USD 160,000. The DREL method is thus shown to be economical; the total cost to remove more than 2,000 pieces of debris in a cluster was only approximately USD 400 million, compared to the millions of dollars required to remove just one or two pieces of debris using a conventional space debris removal mission. By using DREL, the cost of entering space is negligible, thereby enabling countries to remove their space debris in an affordable manner.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (10) ◽  
pp. 1207-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Janhunen

Abstract. Plasma brake is a thin, negatively biased tether that has been proposed as an efficient concept for deorbiting satellites and debris objects from low Earth orbit. We simulate the interaction with the ionospheric plasma ram flow with the plasma-brake tether by a high-performance electrostatic particle in cell code to evaluate the thrust. The tether is assumed to be perpendicular to the flow. We perform runs for different tether voltage, magnetic-field orientation and plasma-ion mass. We show that a simple analytical thrust formula reproduces most of the simulation results well. The interaction with the tether and the plasma flow is laminar (i.e. smooth and not turbulent) when the magnetic field is perpendicular to the tether and the flow. If the magnetic field is parallel to the tether, the behaviour is unstable and thrust is reduced by a modest factor. The case in which the magnetic field is aligned with the flow can also be unstable, but does not result in notable thrust reduction. We also correct an error in an earlier reference. According to the simulations, the predicted thrust of the plasma brake is large enough to make the method promising for low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite deorbiting. As a numerical example, we estimate that a 5 km long plasma-brake tether weighing 0.055 kg could produce 0.43 mN breaking force, which is enough to reduce the orbital altitude of a 260 kg object mass by 100 km over 1 year.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Zhang ◽  
Hongliang Zhang ◽  
Chao Guo ◽  
Haitao Xu ◽  
Lingyang Song ◽  
...  

In this paper, a satellite-aerial integrated computing (SAIC) architecture in disasters is proposed, where the computation tasks from two-tier users, i.e., ground/aerial user equipments, are either locally executed at the high-altitude platforms (HAPs), or offloaded to and computed by the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. With the SAIC architecture, we study the problem of joint two-tier user association and offloading decision aiming at the maximization of the sum rate. The problem is formulated as a 0-1 integer linear programming problem which is NP-complete. A weighted 3-uniform hypergraph model is obtained to solve this problem by capturing the 3D mapping relation for two-tier users, HAPs, and the LEO satellite. Then, a 3D hypergraph matching algorithm using the local search is developed to find a maximum-weight subset of vertex-disjoint hyperedges. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has improved the sum rate when compared with the conventional greedy algorithm.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenyu Na ◽  
Zheng Pan ◽  
Xin Liu ◽  
Zhian Deng ◽  
Zihe Gao ◽  
...  

As the indispensable supplement of terrestrial communications, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network is the crucial part in future space-terrestrial integrated networks because of its unique advantages. However, the effective and reliable routing for LEO satellite network is an intractable task due to time-varying topology, frequent link handover, and imbalanced communication load. An Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) based distributed routing (ELMDR) strategy was put forward in this paper. Considering the traffic distribution density on the surface of the earth, ELMDR strategy makes routing decision based on traffic prediction. For traffic prediction, ELM, which is a fast and efficient machine learning algorithm, is adopted to forecast the traffic at satellite node. For the routing decision, mobile agents (MAs) are introduced to simultaneously and independently search for LEO satellite network and determine routing information. Simulation results demonstrate that, in comparison to the conventional Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, ELMDR not only sufficiently uses underutilized link, but also reduces delay.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (1) ◽  
pp. 431-446

ABSTRACT In a situation where oil is spilled on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) the operator is responsible for the oil spill response. To do this in a robust and efficient way Norwegian Clean Seas Association for Operating Companies (NOFO) handles the oil spill response on behalf of all member companies. Handling an oil spill response situation in all its forms from offshore incident to beach restoration involves many different resources, skills and people. Introducing Incident Command System (ICS) as the command system for this task even increases the amount of training we need to do. How can NOFO achieve the optimal training of our common and shared response resources in a time where focus is on an effective and robust response? Having an overview of the different response needs and response plans NOFO coordinates activity, training and exercises in an efficient way. This is done with the aid of NOFO’s operative plan. The plan describes every resource with a performance requirement and puts it in to a response context. This gives NOFO a foundation to build a response that is structured and cost efficient for our members. Furthermore, this enables NOFO to tailor our training and exercises from the individual responder/resource to the complex large-scale field exercise which involves typically 250–350 people from numerous different operating companies, municipalities, governmental and private responders. This paper will describe how we plan, train and exercise on the NCS in order to be prepared for response in an efficient and robust way.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaocheng Zhang ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Fei Yin ◽  
Hongfei Gou

<p><strong> </strong>DORIS system aims to provide precise orbit determination of low earth orbit satellites, and the dual-frequencies on S1=2036.25 MHz and U2=401.25 MHz were used on DORIS signals. The ionosphere TEC retrieval on the signal path is possible based on DORIS dual-frequency observations.</p><p>Analysis results show that DORIS pseudo-ranges had noise with several kilometers level, hence only the carrier-phase observations could be utilized on TEC retrieval. Moreover, as the DORIS ground stations were thousands kilometers separated with each other, station differential cannot be guaranteed and the data preprocessing can only be done base on the un-difference observations before the TEC could be precisely determined.</p><p>In this research, a polynomial function was applied to model the DORIS phase observations, and minimal detectable biases (MDB) of less than one cycle wavelength was used as the index on the cycle-slip detection. And then the geometry free combination of S1 and U2 phase measurements were calculated for each DORIS LEO satellite passing arc. Finally, the unknown ambiguities bias on S1 and U2 geometry free observables were shifted to coincide with STEC calculated from the IGS GIM products.</p><p>Both the Jason-2 & 3 based DORIS observations were used for the validation, several simulated +5 and -1 cycle-slip events on both DORIS observation could be clearly detected and correctly repaired. And the calculated STEC on one satellite passing arc from the LEO satellite to station show well agreement with IGS STEC on continent area, and the differences on ocean areas could be used to prove that the IGS GIM products were less precise on those areas.</p>


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