Low Earth Orbit Satellite Design

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

George Sebestyen, Steve Fujikawa, Nicholas Galassi and Alex ChuchraLow Earth Orbit Satellite DesignSpace Technology Library36https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68315-7_1

1. The Space Environment

George Sebestyen¹ , Steve Fujikawa², Nicholas Galassi³ and Alex Chuchra⁴

(1)

McLean, VA, USA

(2)

Crofton, MD, USA

(3)

Bethesda, MA, USA

(4)

Arnold, MA, USA

Space environment and related matters as they apply to spacecraft hardware design will be discussed in this chapter.

1.1 The Environment

1.1.1 The Earth Magnetic Field

The Earth magnetic field is approximately a dipole of 30,000 NanoTesla (nT) strength at the surface of the Earth at 0° magnetic latitude. It varies inversely with the cube of the radius from the center of the Earth, and it also varies with the magnetic latitude. A simplified dipole model of the scalar magnetic field (MF) in nano-Tesla is in Eq. (1.1); and the picture of the magnetic field around the Earth and its variations with altitude, H, magnetic latitude, φ, are shown in Fig. 1.1a, b. R is the radius of the Earth. An accurate model of the field is given in Appendix H of Reference 71, based on the International Geomagnetic Field Model, from which the field can be computed as a function of altitude, Latitude, Longitude and time.

Fig. 1.1

(a) The earth magnetic field. (b) The earth magnetic field vs. altitude and magnetic latitude

(1.1)

The direction of the magnetic field at midlatitudes is nearly parallel to the surface of the Earth, as seen from the picture of Fig. 1.1a. It sucks in towards the Poles. The property that the field is nearly parallel to the Earth at midlatitudes is used by some CubeSat spacecraft to align one dimension of the spacecraft with the local horizon. The spacecraft includes a horizontal magnet. At midlatitudes, the magnet aligns itself with the magnetic lines and provides a degree of stabilization to the spacecraft. When the spacecraft approaches the Polar region, it tends to first suck in then flip.

The magnetic field of Earth varies with time. Models representing the field are updated every 7 years. To illustrate the variation of the magnetic field, consider the motion of the Poles. In 2015, the magnetic North Pole was located at 86.27° N and 159.18° W. The South Pole was at 62.26° S and 136.59° E. The North Pole was drifting North at about 40 miles per year. It was also getting weaker.

1.1.2 Solar Energy

The heat sources seen by a spacecraft are direct radiation by the sun, Earth-reflected radiation of the Sun (Albedo) and outgoing long wave Earth radiation. The sun incident power varies between 1322 and 1414 W/m², with a median of 1367 W/m².

The Earth-reflected power (Albedo) and Long Wave outgoing radiation from Earth vary with altitude and position around the Earth. Albedo radiation is mostly in the visible range and has a mean reflectance of 0.3, meaning that 0.3 times the incident sun energy is reflected from Earth omnidirectionally. The reflection coefficient is less 0.25 near the Equator and about 0.7 toward the Poles.

The challenge faced by most spacecraft designs is how to get rid of the large amount of incident heat.

1.1.3 Residual Atmosphere

Atmospheric density is a function of altitude and solar sunspot activity. Figure 1.2 shows the atmospheric density as a function of altitude for High, Low and Medium sun spot numbers.

Fig. 1.2

Atmospheric density varies with altitude & sun spot activity

Atmospheric density at any given altitude varies significantly, depending on sunspot activities. Sunspot activity follows a seven-year cycle and is shown in Fig. 1.3. The red line is a projection.

Fig. 1.3

Sunspot activities (NASA)

At low orbit altitudes (below ≈ 650 km), atmospheric density results in significant drag on a spacecraft, causing it to lose altitude. Atmospheric drag can also induce torques if the spacecraft Center of Gravity (CG) and its Center of Pressure (CP) are not near each other. Since sunspot activity has a major impact on atmospheric density at low altitudes, it is important to take it into consideration over the mission life of the spacecraft.

1.1.4 Gravity and Gravity Gradient

The acceleration of gravity at Earth’s surface is 9.806 m/s², and it varies inversely with the square of the altitude. This functional relationship is shown in Eq. (1.2), where G(H) in m/s² is the acceleration of gravity at altitude H. The gradient of the acceleration of gravity is an important quantity, as it determines how well spacecraft with gravity gradient booms will function. These spacecraft utilize the gravity gradient to create a restoring force for a pendulum formed by the spacecraft mass, the gravity gradient boom and the tip mass. This subject will be covered in more detail in the ADACS chapter. More detailed descriptions of the Space Environment are in references 3, 36 and 72.

(1.2)

1.2 The Earth and Spacecraft Coordinate System

The position of a spacecraft in orbit at any instant is defined by the six Keplerian orbital parameters, given below. Instead of Eccentricity and Semimajor Axis, sometimes Apogee and Perigee are used to describe the size and shape of the orbit. Figures 1.4 and 1.5 illustrate the orbital elements.

Fig. 1.4

Orbital elements

Fig. 1.5

The orbital elements

Sometimes, orbital elements are expressed in Two-Line Elements. An example is below:

Fig. 1.6

Two-line orbital elements

1.3 Other Space Environmental Matters

The Earth axis of rotation is tilted relative to its orbit plane around the Sun by 23.5°. This causes the Sun to move up and down relative to the Equatorial plane by up to ±23.5° during the year.

The Earth-Sun distance varies from 147,166,462 km (around January 3) to 152,171,522 km (around July 4), with an average of 149,597,870.7 km.

The images of the Sun and the Moon both subtend an average of ≈0.52°. Optical instruments on spacecraft need to take this into account to assure they do not point to the Sun or Moon unintentionally.

The angular positions of stars are maintained in a Star Catalog by the Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC). This catalog is matched against the star field seen by a Star Tracker on a spacecraft to establish the spacecraft position and attitude.

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

George Sebestyen, Steve Fujikawa, Nicholas Galassi and Alex ChuchraLow Earth Orbit Satellite DesignSpace Technology Library36https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68315-7_2

2. Satellite Missions

George Sebestyen¹ , Steve Fujikawa², Nicholas Galassi³ and Alex Chuchra⁴

(1)

McLean, VA, USA

(2)

Crofton, MD, USA

(3)

Bethesda, MA, USA

(4)

Arnold, MA, USA

2.1 Satellite Orbits

The most frequent orbits are shown in Fig. 2.1. Polar orbits are those where the plane of the orbit passes through the poles. They have inclinations of 90° and are usually circular. Because the Earth rotates under the orbit, these satellites can survey the entire Earth.

Fig. 2.1

Polar, inclined, sun-synchronous and elliptical orbits seen from the sun

Beta angle is the angle between the Sun line and the orbit plane. In a Beta = 0° Polar orbit, the Sun will see the orbit edge on. For Beta = 90° (top left figure), the Sun will see the orbit at normal incidence. Figure 2.1 also shows a Polar orbit at Beta = 45° and a 60° inclination orbit, used when mid- latitude coverage is required. In the top three figures, a nadir pointing four-sided spacecraft is also shown.

Sun Synchronous orbits are near Polar orbits inclined so that the spacecraft sees the same points on Earth at the same time each day. For example, a 97.8° inclined orbit at 540 km will describe exactly 15 orbits per day, and each day the spacecraft will cover every point on Earth at the same time. Such orbits are very useful for imaging, as the orbit will ensure that the spacecraft will be over a specified area of the Earth during (say) mid-morning hours.

Elliptical orbits that dip low at Perigee are often used by spacecraft that must be at low altitudes over designated areas of the Earth, but could not survive long at the low altitude. For this reason their orbit is elliptical, so that they would spend a lot of time at higher altitude, thereby reducing average drag and maximizing surveillance time. A special case of the elliptical orbit is the Molnya orbit, which is highly elliptical. It has an Apogee of 40,000 km, and its orbital period is 12 h. A spacecraft in this orbit can survey the Northern hemisphere for half a day at a time.

The GPS satellite orbit is at an altitude of 20,180 km at an inclination of 55°. The 32 spacecraft provide continuous worldwide coverage for navigation systems.

While this book does not address Geostationary Satellites, circular orbits at 35,786 km have 24-h orbit periods, so the satellite appears to hang over a single point on Earth. Such orbits are used for commercial radio and television broadcasts.

2.2 Satellites Today

According to Wikipedia, there were about 1100 active satellites in orbit in 2015, and about 2600 that no longer work. More than 50 countries have spacecraft programs of one sort or another. In 2015, a total of 86 spacecraft were launched, 32 of which were GEO and 44 that were LEO. Additionally, 33 Cubesats were launched in 2014. This number is not included in the previously mentioned satellites launched or on orbit. So far, some 300 CubeSats have been launched, and there are another 150 or so in the pipeline.

The GEO satellite missions are mostly for communications or television. There are some MEO satellites (GPS) that provide navigational capabilities to its users. Almost all of the rest are LEO satellites. Their missions range from weather, science, communications, Earth observation and imaging. The number of small LEO satellites is increasing dramatically. It is expected that in the period from 2014 to 2023 an average of 115 small LEO satellites will be launched per year.

Some representative LEO satellites are illustrated in the following figures:

The satellite in Fig. 2.2 has an explosive bolt separation system. Figure 2.3 shows horizontal mating of the satellites with the launch vehicle. Two satellites are launched, one on top of the other.

Fig. 2.2

180 lbs, 89.5°, 756 × 887 km orbit, gravity gradient stabilized communications satellite

Fig. 2.3

Two 170-lbs polar orbit digital store-forward communications satellites

The spacecraft below illustrate the great variety of LEO spacecraft, orbits, methods of stabilization, types of propulsion systems and methods of deploying a variety of solar arrays and antennas (Figs. 2.4–2.7).

Fig. 2.4

190 Ibs Polar orbit, 800 km altitude radar calibration satellite with 17 deployable antennas

Fig. 2.5

400 Ibs, 822 km Polar orbit, 3-axis pitch bias momentum stabilized satellite. Gimbaled dish antenna & deployable solar panels

Fig. 2.6

900 lbs, 548 km, 40° Orbit satellite with hydrazine propulsion, 3-axis stabilized, 3 reaction wheels, deployable solar panels with solar array drive

Fig. 2.7

579 lbs, 430 × 1375 km, 68.9° Orbit 3-axis stabilized satellite with 3 reaction wheels, hydrazine propulsion, deployable solar panels

2.3 Satellite Imaging

Imaging spacecraft are used for remote sensing and for taking images or strip photographs of points on Earth. Remote sensing satellites are typically in Polar or near-Polar orbits to cover the entire Earth. Often, near-Polar orbits are also sun synchronous so that any given point on Earth is covered at the same time each day. Figure 2.8 illustrates such an orbit and several imaging spacecraft.

Fig. 2.8

Imaging spacecraft orbit and several imaging spacecraft

There are basically two different types of imaging spacecraft, shown in Fig. 2.9. A few imaging spacecraft fly horizontally, with the telescope parallel to the horizon. These use a 45° elliptical mirror in front of the telescope to image the Earth. To change the image position, only a light mirror needs to be moved in pitch and roll. The spacecraft itself does not change attitude and can be pitch bias stabilized, saving the cost and weight of 2 reaction wheels. One advantage of this type of spacecraft is that pointing agility is easily achieved. Another is that it presents a small cross section, so aerodynamic drag is reduced, and aerodynamic torques are eliminated because the spacecraft CG and Center of Pressure are essentially colocated. One of the disadvantages, however, is that the spacecraft is substantially longer to make room for the gimbaled mirror in front of the telescope.

Fig. 2.9

Two types of imaging spacecraft

Most imaging spacecraft point to the target on the ground. To change aim point, the spacecraft attitude must be changed. This requires a 3-axis stabilization system with large enough reaction wheels to achieve the aim point agility required by the mission.

2.3.1 Imaging Payload Fundamentals

Most imaging spacecraft contain a telescope that looks at the Earth. The area on the Earth imaged is centered at the telescope aim point. Ground resolution achievable is defined by the telescope Diffraction Limit, given in the equation at the top of Fig. 2.10. Diffraction limit (DL), telescope aperture (D), orbit altitude (H) and wavelength (λ) are all in meters. For a spacecraft at 540-km altitude with a 35-cm diameter telescope, the DL is given for three wavelengths in the table in Fig. 2.10. The DL varies between 0.753 m and 1.223 m, depending on the wavelength.

Fig. 2.10

Diffraction limit as a function of wavelength

Fig. 2.11

Geometrical resolution and diffraction limit

Geometrical resolution on the ground is usually defined as the Ground Sample Distance (GSD) and is given by the equation at the bottom of Fig. 2.10. The spacecraft GSD (for nadir-pointing) depends on the spacecraft altitude (H), telescope focal length (FL) and camera pixel size (P). At an off-nadir angle, ϕ, the GSD increases as 1/cos(ϕ).

A numerical example is given in Fig. 2.10 for ϕ = 0, H = 540 km, camera pixel size of 5.5*10−6 m, telescope FL = 3 m and telescope aperture of 35 cm. The GSD = 0.99 meter.

A telescope with a 10-cm aperture may be flown on a CubeSat, while a telescope with a 35-cm aperture may be the largest that experimenters might fly. Note that the geometrical resolution, determined by the focal length of the telescope (for a given pixel size camera) is well matched to the diffraction limit in these examples. In other words, trying to increase the focal length to get better resolution is not worth the effort, as the diameter establishes the diffraction limit that cannot be bettered. Note that F# = FL/D ≈ 8.57. The camera pixel size, in this example, is 5.5 μm, such as the Truesense (Kodak) KAI-16050 16 MP CCD array.

2.3.2 The Telescope

A picture of a typical Cassagrain telescope is shown in Fig. 2.12. The Primary Mirror (PM) reflects the incident light, which is reflected by the Secondary Mirror (SM) to the camera Focal Plane. First, however, the light passes through corrector lenses, shown in the central tube. Since the Cassagrain Telescope folds the optical path in two, the actual length of the telescope is about half of the focal length.

Fig. 2.12

Cassagrain telescope with camera and ray paths

The telescope is made of nearly zero temperature coefficient materials to ensure that the telescope remains in focus over the temperature variations it will encounter in space. The determination of how much of a dimensional change or elongation is permitted for the telescope to remain in focus is a very complicated matter and will not be addressed here. However, according to a simple rule of thumb, the change in the FL due to temperature variations should not cause the diameter of a spot to increase much over half the size of the camera CCD pixel. For a 35-cm diameter, nominally 3.0 m FL telescope and 5.5*10−6 pixel size, this is a FL change of about 0.047 mm. Because the optical path is folded, the telescope structure must not change dimensions by more than 0.023 mm. The thermal design of the telescope must achieve such dimensional stability over the temperature range the telescope will encounter in space.

This is a very challenging task. The temperature coefficients of different materials often used for constructing telescopes are Aluminum, Graphite Epoxy and Invar 36. Their Temperature Coefficients are, respectively, 22.2 pp/m/C°, 2.1 pp/m/C° and 1.2 pp/m/C°. The telescope length is approximately 1.5 m.

The fractional elongation of the telescope structure permitted is 7.66 ppm. If made of Aluminum, the maximum temperature change permitted is only 0.345 C°. If made of Graphite Epoxy, the temperature could change by 3.64 C°; and if made of Invar 36, the temperature could change by 6.38 C° before the telescope would defocus. The thermal designs of the spacecraft and telescope are a major engineering challenge.

2.3.3 Image Quality

From an optical design point of view, the performance of a telescope is typically characterized by the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). MTF is the spatial frequency response of the optical system. As in electronics, where a filter is characterized by its transfer function in the frequency domain, the MTF describes the ability of the optical system to pass or transfer an image.

Figure 2.13 shows increasing frequency sinusoidal and rectangular amplitude bar patterns as inputs to an optical system. The spatial frequency is measured in line pairs/mm. The output for each pattern and the system frequency response are shown below. Note that for a frequency response amplitude >10% of the low frequency response, the image is reasonably good and usable. MTF = 10%, for this example, occurs at 70 lp/mm. The dimension of a line pair is 1/70th of a mm, or 14 μm. This is the resolution of this optical system. If a CCD camera with 5.5-μm pixel size at the focal plane is used, the sharpest detail in the image would be greater than 2 pixels in size. A good design should provide an output that is better matched to pixel size.

Fig. 2.13

Modulation Transfer function (MTF) a spatial frequency response of an optical system (Normal Koren)

For a typical telescope, MTF > 10% is often used to specify the response required for an input image of the size of the GSD. Of course, MTF = 10% should be achieved everywhere in the Field Of View of the image, not just at the center.

Another measure of the quality of a system, from the point of view of a human observer and his ability to interpret an image, is the National Image Interpretability Rating Scale, NIIRS. Since that takes into account many factors other than the telescope design, it will not be discussed here.

2.3.4 Adequacy of the Light Input

We covered the subject of resolution. Now, we must determine how long an exposure time is required to get a good picture. The image Signal-to-Noise Ratio (S/N) is determined by comparing the intensity of the image to the intensity of the background noise, Albedo and CCD electron noise. This is accomplished by performing a radiometric analysis of the system (telescope, sun angle, time of day, season, latitude, etc.). An example of a radiometric analysis for a 35-cm aperture, 2.8-m focal length telescope looking at the Earth from an altitude of 600 km at specified time and latitude, and using a camera exposure time of 150 μsec (one pixel spacecraft travel time) is shown in Fig. 2.14.

Fig. 2.14

Radiometric analysis to determine the image S/N

The CCD sensor noise is 16 electrons per pixel, and the sensor saturates at 30,000 electrons. For various Sun elevation angles, the figure shows the number of image electrons per pixel. If a 10 bit A/D converter is used to digitize the image, at 90° Sun elevation angle the image intensity is only 4.5 bits of the 10 bit converter range. Pixel noise is 16 electrons/pixel; and the S/N per pixel varies from 21.84 dB (at 90° elevation) to 12.03 dB (at 24.86° elevation). The latter is not good enough for a good picture.

The bottom left of the figure shows the time of day that the camera is usable and produces enough light for a good picture. Although the fraction of the sensor dynamic range occupied by the image is small, the S/N is adequate for a good picture.

As seen from the green region of the figure, acceptable images can be produced from about 7 AM to about 4 PM. If we increase the image exposure time to 750 μsec, see Fig. 2.15, the usable time of day increases by 1 h at each end of the day.

Fig. 2.15

Increasing exposure time to 750 μsec adds 1 h of usable time to each end of the day

2.3.5 Image Integration (Exposure) Time

As seen from the foregoing results, it may be advantageous to increase the image exposure time from the 150 μsec 1 pixel fly-bye time. There are two ways of increasing exposure time:

(a)

Impart to the spacecraft a negative pitch rate to increase the allowable dwell time per pixel

(b)

Make the spacecraft point to the target, and keep pitch, roll or yaw slewing so that the telescope aim point remains fixed

Figure 2.16 shows the pitch rate needed to permit the effective exposure time to increase, as shown. A pitch rate of −0.60°/sec would permit an exposure time of about 600 μsec, probably enough for most purposes. Of course, it takes time for the spacecraft to go from 0°/sec pitch rate to −0.6°/sec pitch rate, and then return to 0 after the image was taken. The elapsed time for the entire maneuver can be substantial and reduces the number of images that can be taken per unit time.

Fig. 2.16

Establishing a negative spacecraft pitch rate increases allowable image exposure time

The other alternative for increasing the available dwell time over a pixel is for the spacecraft to point to the target and stay pointing to it until the image is taken. There are two ways to point to the target:

1.

Pitch and yaw to point to the target, then keep changing pitch and yaw. For this case, the orientation of the image FOV keeps changing. It is more difficult to stitch successive pictures into a strip photo.

2.

Roll the spacecraft to aim at a line parallel to the SC ground trace by an amount equal to the Spacecraft-Target CPA range, and continuously change the pitch to keep pointing to the target. In this case, the image orientation remains constant and parallel to the spacecraft ground trace. It is much easier to stitch consecutive images into a strip photo. In most cases, this second alternative is preferred.

2.3.6 Pointing to a Target on the Ground

The procedures for both methods of pointing the spacecraft to the target are described below and illustrated in Fig. 2.17: