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Satellite constellation

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The GPS constellation calls for 24 satellites to be distributed equally among six orbital planes

A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working in concert. Such a constellation can be considered to be a number of satellites with coordinated ground coverage, operating together under shared control, synchronized so that they overlap well in coverage, the period in which a satellite or other spacecraft is visible above the local horizon.

Overview

Low Earth orbiting satellites (LEOs) are often deployed in satellite constellations, because the coverage area provided by a single LEO satellite only covers a small area that moves as the satellite travels at the high angular velocity needed to maintain its orbit. Many LEO satellites are needed to maintain continuous coverage over an area. This contrasts with geostationary satellites, where a single satellite, moving at the same angular velocity as the rotation of the Earth's surface, provides permanent coverage over a large area.

Examples of satellite constellations include the Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo and GLONASS constellations for navigation and geodesy, the Iridium and Globalstar satellite telephony services, the Disaster Monitoring Constellation and RapidEye for remote sensing, the Orbcomm messaging service, Russian elliptic orbit Molniya and Tundra constellations, the large-scale Teledesic and Skybridge broadband constellation proposals of the 1990s, and more recent systems such as O3b or the OneWeb proposal.

Broadband applications benefit from low-latency communications, so LEO satellite constellations provide an advantage over a geostationary satellite, where minimum theoretical latency from ground to satellite is about 125 milliseconds, compared to 1–4 milliseconds for a LEO satellite. A LEO satellite constellation can also provide more system capacity by frequency reuse across its coverage, with spot beam frequency use being analogous to the minimum number of satellites needed to provide a service, and their orbits—is a field in itself.

A group of formation-flying satellites very close together and moving in almost identical orbits is known as a satellite cluster or Satellite formation flying.

In 2015 Farooq Khan then the President of Samsung Research America published a research paper providing details how a large satellite broadband constellation can be designed.[1]

Walker Constellation

There are a large number of constellations that may satisfy a particular mission. Usually constellations are designed so that the satellites have similar orbits, eccentricity and inclination so that any perturbations affect each satellite in approximately the same way. In this way, the geometry can be preserved without excessive station-keeping thereby reducing the fuel usage and hence increasing the life of the satellites. Another consideration is that the phasing of each satellite in an orbital plane maintains sufficient separation to avoid collisions or interference at orbit plane intersections. Circular orbits are popular, because then the satellite is at a constant altitude requiring a constant strength signal to communicate.

A class of circular orbit geometries that has become popular is the Walker Delta Pattern constellation. This has an associated notation to describe it which was proposed by John Walker.[2] His notation is:

i: t/p/f

where: i is the inclination; t is the total number of satellites; p is the number of equally spaced planes; and f is the relative spacing between satellites in adjacent planes. The change in true anomaly (in degrees) for equivalent satellites in neighbouring planes is equal to f*360/t.

For example, the Galileo Navigation system is a Walker Delta 56°:24/3/1 constellation. This means there are 24 satellites in 3 planes inclined at 56 degrees, spanning the 360 degrees around the equator. The "1" defines the phasing between the planes, and how they are spaced. The Walker Delta is also known as the Ballard rosette, after A. H. Ballard's similar earlier work.[3][4] Ballard's notation is (t,p,m) where m is a multiple of the fractional offset between planes.

Another popular constellation type is the near-polar Walker Star, which is used by Iridium. Here, the satellites are in near-polar circular orbits across approximately 180 degrees, travelling north on one side of the Earth, and south on the other. The active satellites in the full Iridium constellation form a Walker Star of 86.4°:66/6/2, i.e. the phasing repeats every two planes. Walker uses similar notation for stars and deltas, which can be confusing.

Communications satellite constellations

At least eight telecommunications satellite constellations are in-development in LEO and MEO :[5]

  • Iridium Next: cockpit safety services (not passenger Wi-Fi) on land, at sea and in the skies + Aireon aircraft tracking
  • Boeing: Enhanced broadband access availability in the U.S. and globally. Application filed in June 2016. In 2017 Boeing filed an application to transfer the pending application to a company controlled by OneWeb founder Greg Wyler.[6]
  • LeoSat: Global, enterprise-grade, high-speed and secure data network, satellites interconnected through laser links for a space optical backbone 1.5 times faster than terrestrial fiber backbones
  • OneWeb satellite constellation: low cost mass-produced satellites, for LTE/3G/2G.Wi-Fi rooftop terminals of mobile operators and ISPs, to bridge the digital divide by 2027
  • SpaceX Starlink: worldwide for individual, commercial and government institutions; optical intersatellite link; Congress pressed for spectrum sharing
  • O3b, bought by SES S.A. in 2016: Covering 45°S to 45°N, synergies with SES geosynchronous-Earth-orbit and MEO satellites, O3b mPower with 4,000 steerable beams each
  • Telesat LEO: Universal connectivity for business, government and individual users in areas of concentrated demand: busy airports; military operations on land, sea and air; major shipping ports; large, remote communities; optical intersatellite links, lower Mbit/s cost than others including those in development
Communications satellite constellations[5]
Constellation Number Manufacturer Weight Unveil. Avail. Orbit User speed Band Inter-satellite links Status
Iridium Next 66
+9 spares 		Thales Alenia
+ Orbital ATK 		860 kg
1,900 lb 		2009 2018 780 km
485 mi 		1.4 Mbit/s L (1 – 2 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) 		K 23 GHz [7] Complete
Boeing 1,396-2,956 Boeing Satellite N/A 2016 N/A 1,200 km
745 mi 		broadband V (40 – 75 GHz) none [8][9] transferring the application to OneWeb[6]
LeoSat 78-108 Thales Alenia 1,250 kg
2,755 lb 		2015 2022 1,400 km
895 mi 		in increments of 100 Mbit/s Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) optical [10] first launches in 2021[11]
OneWeb constellation 882-1980[12] OneWeb
Airbus JV 		145 kg
320 lb 		2015 2020[13] 1,200 km
745 mi 		up to 595 Mbit/s[13] Ku (12–18 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) 		none [14][15] 6 pilot satellites in February 2019
SpaceX Starlink 4,425-11,943 SpaceX N/A 2015 2020[16] 550-1,325 km
341-823 mi 		up to 1 Gbit/s[17] Ku (12–18 GHz)
Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) 		optical[18] two prototypes launched in 2018
O3b, bought by SES S.A. in 2016 20 O3b
7 O3bm 		Thales Alenia (O3b)
Boeing (O3bm) 		700 kg: O3b
1,543 lb 		2008: O3b
2017: O3bm 		2014: O3b
2021: O3bm 		8,000 km
4,970 mi 		1 Gbit/s for a cruise ship Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) none O3b complete
Telesat LEO 117-512[19] Airbus SSTL
SS/Loral[a] 		N/A 2016 2021 1,000–1,248 km
621–775 mi 		fiber-optic cable-like Ka (26.5 – 40 GHz) optical [20][21] two prototypes: 2018 launch
CASIC Hongyun[22] 156 2017 2022 160–2,000 km
99–1,243 mi 		prototype launched in December 2018[23]
CASC Hongyan[24] 320 2017 2023 1,100 km
680 mi 		prototype launched in December 2018[25]
  1. ^ first two prototypes

See also

Example satellite constellations

Types

In use

Proposals

Defunct

References

  1. ^ Khan, Farooq (9 August 2015). "Mobile Internet from the Heavens". arXiv:1508.02383 [cs.NI].
  2. ^ J. G. Walker, Satellite constellations, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 37, pp. 559-571, 1984
  3. ^ A. H. Ballard, Rosette Constellations of Earth Satellites, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Vol 16 No. 5, Sep. 1980.
  4. ^ J. G. Walker, Comments on "Rosette constellations of earth satellites", IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 18 no. 4, pp. 723-724, November 1982.
  5. ^ a b Thierry Dubois (Dec 19, 2017). "Eight Satellite Constellations Promising Internet Service From Space". Aviation Week & Space Technology.
  6. ^ a b "Boeing wants to help OneWeb satellite plans". Advanced Television. 2017-12-17. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  7. ^ Muri, Paul; McNair, Janise (1 April 2012). "A Survey of Communication Sub-systems for Intersatellite Linked Systems and CubeSat Missions". Journal of Communications. 7 (4). doi:10.4304/jcm.7.4.290-308.
  8. ^ The Boeing Company (June 22, 2016). "SAT-LOA-20160622-00058". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  9. ^ The Boeing Company (June 22, 2016). "SAT-LOA-20161115-00109". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  10. ^ LeoSat Enterprises. "A NEW TYPE OF SATELLITE CONSTELLATION". Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  11. ^ "LeoSat gains Hispasat as second investor, drops demo satellite plans". SpaceNews. 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-10-21.
  12. ^ "OneWeb asks FCC to authorize 1,200 more satellites". SpaceNews. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  13. ^ a b "OneWeb hardware finally coming together". SpaceNews. 3 October 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  14. ^ WorldVu Satellites Limited (April 28, 2016). "ONEWEB NON-GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE SYSTEM - ATTACHMENT A". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  15. ^ WorldVu Satellites Limited (April 28, 2016). "SAT-LOI-20160428-00041". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  16. ^ "Musk shakes up SpaceX in race to make satellite launch window: sources". Reuters. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  17. ^ "SpaceX Set to Launch 2 Starlink Satellites to Test Gigabit Broadband". ISPreview. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  18. ^ "This is how Elon Musk plans to use SpaceX to give internet to everyone". CNET. 21 February 2018.
  19. ^ "Telesat says ideal LEO constellation is 292 satellites, but could be 512". SpaceNews. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  20. ^ Telesat Canada (August 24, 2017). "Telesat Technical Narrative". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  21. ^ Telesat Canada (August 24, 2017). "SAT-PDR-20170301-00023". FCC Space Station Applications. Retrieved February 23, 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  22. ^ Zhao, Lei (5 March 2018). "Satellite will test plan for communications network". China Daily. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  23. ^ Barbosa, Rui C. (21 December 2018). "Chinese Long March 11 launches with the first Hongyun satellite". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
  24. ^ Jones, Andrew (13 November 2018). "China to launch first Hongyan LEO communications constellation satellite soon". GBTimes. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  25. ^ Barbosa, Rui (29 December 2018). "Long March 2D concludes 2018 campaign with Hongyan-1 launch". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 29 December 2018.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Satellite constellations.

Satellite constellation simulation tools:

More information:

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