Design and Analysis of Non-symmetric Satellite Constellations

Abstract: Satellite constellation design has been a well-studied problem since the beginning of the space age. In recent years new concepts and approaches tried to solve it with fewer satellites whilst guaranteeing coverage to the areas of interest, whether globally or regionally. This thesis introduces a novel approach based on the repeating ground track concept. It then links and converts the constellation design problem to a Set Cover problem. Although it is NP-hard, the Greedy Algorithm is capable to approximate the solution in a polynomial time with a logarithm ratio. An application of the non-symmetric strategy is illustrated with in 36 different scenarios, where altitude, sensor swath and time requirement are varied. In addition to that, a comparison with the Walker constellation on 6 scenarios is analyzed and discussed. In most cases the non-symmetric strategy produces constellations with significantly less satellites required.