Constellation optimization design for hyper-horizon coverage vehicles

Abstract:

In the paper, the concept of hyper-horizon coverage vehicle was briefly described, and the optimization of the Common Aero Vehicle (CAV) constellation was investigated. First, based on the analysis of earth coverage of a single CAV, a new method was proposed to analyze the earth coverage of CAV, which was simple and geometrical meaningful. Then a math model of the optimization of a CAV constellation was established by introducing the concept of average visit time on orbit, which was an equivalent coverage performance of CAV constellation. At last, genetic algorithm was used to optimize the parameters of CAV constellation and the results validated the proposed method and mathematical model.