Analysis and design of Cubesat constellation for the Mediterranean south costal monitoring against illegal immigration

Costal monitoring is focused on fast response to illegal immigration and illegal ship traffic. Especially, the illegal ship traffic has been present in media since April 2015, as the number of reported deaths of immigrants crossing the Mediterranean significantly increased. Satellite images provide a possibility to at least partially control both types of events. This paper defines the principal criteria to select the best satellite constellation architecture for maritime and coastal monitoring, filling the gaps of imagery techniques in term of real-time control. The primary purpose of a constellation is to obtain global measurement improving the temporal resolution. The small size and low-cost are the main factors, which make CubeSats ideal for use in constellations. We propose a constellation of 9 Cubesats distributed evenly in 3 different planes. This reduces the revisit time enhancing the coverage duration. In addition, it also allows observing fire, damage on building and similar disasters. In this analysis, the performance criteria were reported such as the revisit time, the vision duration and the area coverage.     

Testing relativity with orbiting clocks

We describe the background and status of a superconducting microwave clock suitable for relativity experiments in earth orbit. The project has the capability of performing improved tests of Lorentz invariance via a Michelson–Morley type experiment, and setting new limits on nine parameters in the Standard Model Extension. If flown with a high stability atomic clock, a Kennedy–Thorndike experiment along with additional tests in general relativity could be performed.