NEAR EQUATORIAL ORBIT SMALL SAR CONSTELLATION FOR DEVELOPING NATIONS

Lawal Ad, Radice Gm

Abstract: The need to harness the benefits of space, to help urban growth and development, using cheaper space systems has become appealing to developing nations. The desired all weather radar satellite poses limitations on a small satellite. Several spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite configurations have been proposed to overcome the significant limit on earth surface revisit time for small SAR satellites, optimising a network of small SAR satellites dedicated to developing nations posed several challenges. In an effort to address some of these challenges, a new concept based on a constellation of small SAR satellite network, in an almost equatorial inclined orbit, operating in a multistatic configuration and solely dedicated to Equatorial region has been proposed. The network consists 3 receiver-only platforms (passive satellites) flying in formation with one transmit/receiver satellite (active satellite). Furthermore, five groundstation sites required for mission operation are located with the equatorial region. The system aims to provide 24 hours of near-real time data, over the equatorial region. A total of two orbital planes for 8 satellites are proposed. This report will describe the process of selecting a suitable orbit constellation configuration. It also determines the stability of the relative motion between the satellites within the formation in order to ensure the desired image product is consistent during operations. Furthermore, it also discusses the process of selecting suitable groundstation locations for the mission operations

Keywords: Near Equatorial orbit, SAR, Interferometry Pendulum, constellation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2013.0204044