Criteria and Trade-offs for LEO Orbit Design

Author

Taini, Giacomo ; Pietropaolo, Andrea ; Notarantonio, Anna

Author_Institution

Thales Alenia Space, Rome

fYear

2008

fDate

1-8 March 2008

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

11

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to define principal criteria to select the best orbit for radar or optics applications in LEO orbits. Mission requirements and P/L constraints are converted into specified parameters such as altitude, eccentricity, inclination, right of ascending of the node, sensor and off- nadir angle, repeat cycle, near-repeat cycle, sub-cycle, overlapping area of interest, field of regard, re-look and repeat time, in order to determine criteria for LEO orbit design. Trade-offs of the selected parameters are performed for radar and optics applications permitting a choice of the best orbit among large number of them. Several satellite projects (e.g. COSMO-SkyMed and JHM) have been analysed by taking advantages of this strategy to define or to verify the best orbital choice for the specified application (optical or radar) in LEO orbits.

Keywords

Earth orbit; artificial satellites; LEO orbit design; mission requirements; optics applications; radar applications; satellite projects; Biomedical optical imaging; Costs; Image converters; Laser radar; Low earth orbit satellites; Optical design; Optical sensors; Payloads; Radar applications; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Aerospace Conference, 2008 IEEE

Conference_Location

Big Sky, MT

ISSN

1095-323X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1487-1

Electronic_ISBN

1095-323X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/AERO.2008.4526281

Filename

4526281