Reconfigurable satellite constellations for geo-spatially adaptive Earth observation missions

Continuously increasing demand for Earth observation in atmospheric research, disaster monitoring, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) has been met by responsive architectures such as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or artificial satellites. Space-based architectures can provide non-dominated design solutions on the utility-cost curve compared to alternate architectures through the use of two approaches: (1) reducing satellite manufacturing and launch costs and (2) introducing reconfigurability to the satellite constellations. Reconfigurable constellations (ReCons) enable fast responses to access targets of interest while providing global monitoring capability from space. The wide-area coverage and fast responses provided ReCon can complement high-resolution imagery provided by UAS. A newly proposed ReCon framework improves the model fidelity of previous approaches by utilizing Satellite Tool Kit (STK) simulations and Earth observation mission databases. This thesis investigates the design and optimization of ReCon in low Earth orbits. A multidisciplinary simulation model is developed, to which optimization techniques are applied for both single-objective and multi-objective problems. In addition to the optimized baseline ReCon design, its variants are also considered as case studies. Future work will potentially co-optimize ReCon and UAS-like systems.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Paek, Sung Wook

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Olivier L. de Weck.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76106

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/76106