Satellite Constellation Configuration Design with Rapid Performance Calculation and Ordinal Optimization

Satellite constellation configuration design is a complicated and time-consuming simulation optimization problem. In this paper, a new method called the rapid method for satellite constellation performance calculation is developed by the Hermite interpolation technique to reduce the computing complication and time. The constellation configuration optimization model is established on the basis of the rapid performance calculation. To reduce the search space and enhance the optimization efficiency, this paper presents a new constellation optimization strategy based on the ordinal optimization (OO) theory and expands the algorithm realization for constellation optimization including precise and crude models, ordered performance curves, selection rules and selected subsets. Two experiments about navigation constellation and space based surveillance system (SBSS) are carried out and the analysis of simulation results indicates that the ordinal optimization for satellite constellation configuration design is effective.