Earth Observation Microsatellite Constellation for Disaster Monitoring in Africa
- Paper number
IAC-11,B4,1,11,x9401
- Author
Mrs. Beatriz Jilete, Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Pablo Muñoz, Spain
- Year
2011
- Abstract
It is well known that Earth Observation satellite constellations can contribute to natural and manmade disaster monitoring, to agriculture applications and to Goverments planning and security, among other applications, through early warning, event monitoring and analysing the consequences after the event. There are many constellations of such a type for global or regional monitoring. However, it is clear that the development and operation of such a project by developing countries, such as those in Africa, would become an impulse in science, engineering and technology. This paper reports the mission analysis study of a low-cost Earth Observation microsatellite constellation which is able to acquire regular medium/high resolution imagery over Africa for resource management applications. The baseline constellation is characterized by one plane with 5 satellites. The nominal orbit is a frozen Sun-synchronous orbit at 630 km height with LTAN of 10:30 A.M.. Each satellite carries both medium and high resolution optical cameras. The imaging performances achieved are 20.3 m GSD over a 550 km width scene with a medium resolution multispectral imager, and 3.8 m GSD over a 30 km swath with a high resolution camera. The revisit period obtained is daily with the medium resolution camera and 20 days with the high resolution camera. A multiple satellite launch strategy has been also analysed based on the 5 satellites around a cilindrical mast dispenser, layed on two different planes to guarantee no collision risk when deployed. In order to compute the amount of fuel needed the following manouevres have been considered to contribute to the delta-V budget of the mission: launcher injection correction errors in-plane and out-plane, satellite phasing, orbit maintenance, collision avoidance and deorbiting at the end of its operational life. The orbit maintenance strategy followed is to act only on the semi-major axis corrections and not on inclination, with a consequent but affordable LTAN offset (9 minutes for a 5 year mission duration), which implies a substantial saving on fuel. The ground segment features commercial off-the-shelf hardware and proprietary software that has been selected for its performance, maintainability and expendability. The ground based equipment and facilities consist of several Spacecraft Control Center in different African countries, allowing each country to control their own satellite of the constellation and encourage the cooperation between African countries.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-11,B4,1,11,x9401.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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