Session
Swifty Session 3
Location
Utah State University, Logan, UT
Abstract
As the number of satellites in orbit grows, satellite constellation operators must consider better ways to balance the usage of ground assets. In general, ground asset availability does not grow linearly with the number of satellites launched, so alternative approaches to divide usage amongst a limited number of ground assets are required. While advanced techniques exist to manage these factors, they are often not practical for small and growing constellation managers.
The authors have developed a computationally simple method for dividing available antenna time between satellites, considering available access windows. This was designed to adapt to any number of heterogenous orbital configurations to provide a fair distribution of contact time to satellites within a constellation, ensuring that each satellite is contacted as often as is necessary to fulfill mission requirements.
SSC23-S3-02 Presentation
Simple Scheduling Algorithm for Growing Constellations
Utah State University, Logan, UT
As the number of satellites in orbit grows, satellite constellation operators must consider better ways to balance the usage of ground assets. In general, ground asset availability does not grow linearly with the number of satellites launched, so alternative approaches to divide usage amongst a limited number of ground assets are required. While advanced techniques exist to manage these factors, they are often not practical for small and growing constellation managers.
The authors have developed a computationally simple method for dividing available antenna time between satellites, considering available access windows. This was designed to adapt to any number of heterogenous orbital configurations to provide a fair distribution of contact time to satellites within a constellation, ensuring that each satellite is contacted as often as is necessary to fulfill mission requirements.
