Assessment of the close approach frequency and collision probability for satellites in different configurations of large constellations

The Earth orbital environment is drastically changing due to an intensification of the space activities. In particular, several projects of large constellations, proposed for the next years for communications purpose like global internet access, Internet of Things, or for Earth observations, will lead to the deployment of several thousands of new satellites at an unprecedented rate. It is a crucial challenge for space traffic management, which will deal with a great number of satellite conjunctions, potentially causing a collision with damaging consequences for the constellation itself and the space environment sustainability.In this paper, we investigate the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability for each referenced constellation. For this purpose, we compute the orbital evolution of satellites in different constellations during the lifecycle, from the deployment to the decommissioning, and we apply the CUBE algorithm and the Foster method to assess the collision probability with the background space debris population assuming a constant uncertainty in position. We show the variation of risk defined by the close approach frequency and the cumulative collision probability as a function of the proposed configuration. In particular, satellites of the Iridium and Kuiper constellation, but also satellite of the Telesat constellation on polar orbits are the most exposed at a collision. Moreover, the decommissioning phase contribute for a major part to the final cumulative collision probability.     

Deorbiter CubeSat mission design

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit CubeSat form factor and commercially-available components with significant flight heritage. The mothership spacecraft delivers Deorbiter CubeSats to the vicinity of a predetermined target debris, through performing a long-range rendezvous maneuver. Through a formation flying maneuver, the mothership then performs in-situ measurements of debris shape and orbital state. Upon release from the mothership, each Deorbiter CubeSat proceeds to performing a rendezvous and attachment maneuver with a debris object. Once attached to the debris, the CubeSat performs a detumbling maneuver, by which the residual angular momentum of the CubeSat-debris system is dumped using Deorbiter’s onboard reaction wheels. After stabilizing the attitude motion of the combined Deorbiter-debris system, the CubeSat proceeds to performing a deorbiting maneuver, i.e., reducing system’s altitude so much so that the bodies disintegrate and burn up due to atmospheric drag, typically at around 100 km above the Earth surface. The attitude and orbital maneuvers that are planned for the mission are described, both for the mothership and Deorbiter CubeSat. The performance of each spacecraft during their operations is investigated, using the actual performance specifications of the onboard components. The viability of the proposed debris removal approach is discussed in light of the results.     

Development and performance evaluation of tropospheric scintillation model on Ku-band satellite link over Akure,Nigeria

Existing amplitude scintillation prediction models often perform less satisfactorily when deployed outside the regions where they were formulated. This necessitates the need to evaluate the performance of scintillation models developed in one region using data data from other regions while documenting their relative errors. Due to its variation with elevation angle, frequency, other link parameters and meteorological factors, we employed three years (January 2016 to December 2018) of concurrently measured satellite radio beacons and tropospheric weather parameters to develop a location-based amplitude scintillation prediction model over the Earth-space path of Akure (7.17^oN, 5.18^oE), South-western Nigeria. The satellite beacon measurement used Tektronix Y400 NetTek Analyzer at 1 s integration time while meteorological parameters, namely; temperature, pressure and relative humidity were measured using Davis Vantage Vue weather station at 1 min integration time. Comparative study of the model’s performance with nine (9) existing scintillation prediction models indicates that the best and worst performing models, in terms of root mean square error (RMSE), are the Statistical Temperature and Refractivity (STN) and direct physical and statistical prediction (DPSP) models with values 11.48 and 51.03 respectively. Also, worst month analysis indicates that April, with respective enhancement and fade values of 0.88 and 0.90 dB for 0.01% exceedance, is the overall worst calendar month for amplitude scintillation.     

导航卫星中断频次的分析方法

面向导航卫星中断频次的定量分析需求,该文分析导航卫星中断产生的主要原因,给出中断频次分析的流程,并针对分析过程中的三个关键问题,研究提出具体实施方法,包括通过相关性分析快速定位底层中断事件,通过中断树建立指标分析模型,并融合在轨数据、地面试验数据快速预估得到底层功能异常率等。最后通过示例进一步说明中断频次分析过程。该文方法已应用于北斗导航卫星工程。     

Orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamics of tethered solar power satellite

A new orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamic model of the tethered solar power satellite (Tethered SPS) is established based on absolute nodal coordinate formulation. The Hamilton’s equation of the system is derived by introducing generalized momentum through Legendre transformation. The correctness of the proposed model is verified by an example. The dynamic characteristics of the Tethered SPS are studied using the symplectic Runge-Kutta method. Simulation results show that the orbital radius and the total energy of the system are well preserved. The attitude of the system is unstable when the mass of the bus system is small. However, the attitude stability is dependent on some other parameters of the system, which requires further studies. It is also found that the average tether force/deformation can be roughly estimated by simplifying the solar panel as a particle. The proposed model can be used to study the orbit-attitude-vibration coupled dynamics and control problems.     

双模块下颌式内转进气道/圆锥前体一体化布局研究

为实现三维内转进气道的内收缩流场与圆锥前体的外压缩流场的良好匹配，提出了一种双模块下颌式内转进气道/圆锥前体(Double-modules Chin Inward-turning Inlet and Conical Forebody，DCII/CF)一体化设计方法，获得一种新颖的双发并置、侧向安装的DCII/CF一体化布局。针对该布局形式，开展了DCII/CF一体化构型与传统的单模块内转进气道/圆锥前体(Single-module Inward-turning Inlet and Conical Forebody，SII/CF)一体化构型的数值对比研究。结果表明：DCII/CF一体化布局不仅为内转进气道提供了优秀的前体附面层排移效果，还有效避免了传统SII/CF布局中前体附面层与进气道内部流场之间的相互干扰。在Ma∞=6.0设计状态，DCII/CF一体化布局的进气道总压恢复系数相较传统的SII/CF布局有了显著提高，从0.403提高至0.482；但由于前体附面层的排移，该布局的捕获流量略有降低， SII/CF的流量系数为0.956，该布局则为0.917。而在非设计状态，该布局形式同样具备较好的总压恢复性能，在Ma∞=5.0与Ma∞=4.0的总压恢复系数分别达到了0.586和0.682，明显高于SII/CF的总压恢复系数0.507和0.619。     

A robust object-based shadow detection method for cloud-free high resolution satellite images over urban areas and water bodies

Unwanted contrast in high resolution satellite images such as shadow areas directly affects the result of further processing in urban remote sensing images. Detecting and finding the precise position of shadows is critical in different remote sensing processing chains such as change detection, image classification and digital elevation model generation from stereo images. The spectral similarity between shadow areas, water bodies, and some dark asphalt roads makes the development of robust shadow detection algorithms challenging. In addition, most of the existing methods work on pixel-level and neglect the contextual information contained in neighboring pixels. In this paper, a new object-based shadow detection framework is introduced. In the proposed method a pixel-level shadow mask is built by extending established thresholding methods with a new C₄ index which enables to solve the ambiguity of shadow and water bodies. Then the pixel-based results are further processed in an object-based majority analysis to detect the final shadow objects. Four different high resolution satellite images are used to validate this new approach. The result shows the superiority of the proposed method over some state-of-the-art shadow detection method with an average of 96% in F-measure.     

航空电子产品电磁环境效应模块化设计方法

对高强度辐射场（HIRF）环境特点与干扰类型进行分析，采用理论计算、计算机仿真技术（CST）的仿真分析及实测等方法分别对某型飞机航空电子系统综合显示单元的外部强电磁辐射场孔缝耦合、场线耦合及芯片前端电路影响关键芯片的相关规律进行了研究，给出了相关设计建议。结果表明，可通过分析孔缝、场线耦合获得进入关键芯片前端电路的电磁干扰能量，再结合关键芯片前端电路网络对干扰的插入损耗分析，获得关键芯片在外部强场激励下的感应电压。     

An innovative approach for integrated airline network and aircraft family optimization

The determination of optimal aerial transport networks and their associated flight frequencies is crucial for the strategic planning of airlines, as well as for carrying out market research, to establish target markets, and for aircraft and crew rostering. In addition, optimum airplane types for the selected networks are crucial to improve revenue and to provide reduced operating costs. The present study proposes an innovative approach to determine the optimal aerial transport network simultaneously with the determination of the optimum fleet for that network, composed of three types of airplanes (network and vehicle integrated design). The network profit is maximized. The passenger’s demands between the airports are determined via a gravitational model. An embedded linear programming solution is responsible for obtaining potential optimal network configurations. The optimum fleet combination is determined from a database of candidate aircraft designs via genetic algorithm. A truly realistic airplane representation is made possible thanks to accurate surrogate models for engine and aerodynamics is adopted. An accurate engine deck encompassing a compression map and an innovative engine weight calculation besides an aerodynamical artificial neural network module enable a high degree of accuracy for the mission analysis. The proposed methodology is applied to obtain the optimum network comprised of twenty main Brazilian airports and corresponding fleet.     

某型制导雷达部分元器件失效模式的分析

对某型号制导雷达部分元器件进行了失效分析，找出了导致元器件失效的原因，指出设计是提高可靠性的关键，并根据有关元器件情况对生产方与使用方提出了建议。着重讨论了设计师应注意的问题和应该遵循的设计原则。针对失效情况，提出了一些具体的设计构想。