TY - JOUR
T1 - A Distributed Satellite System for Multibaseline AT-InSAR
T2 - Constellation of Formations for Maritime Domain Awareness Using Autonomous Orbit Control
AU - Thangavel, Kathiravan
AU - Servidia, Pablo
AU - Sabatini, Roberto
AU - Marzocca, Pier
AU - Fayek, Haytham
AU - Cerruti, Santiago Husain
AU - España, Martin
AU - Spiller, Dario
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for their support of this work through collaborative research project No. 2.13s. The presented work also benefited from the author’s collaboration with the ALOFT (Autonomous Low-Earth Orbit Formation Flying Technology) project from the National Commission of Space Activities (CONAE) in Argentina.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/2
Y1 - 2023/2
N2 - Space-based Earth Observation (EO) systems have undergone a continuous evolution in the twenty-first century. With the help of space-based Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), specially Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), their applicability across the world’s waterways, among others, has grown substantially. This research work explores the potential applicability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Distributed Satellite Systems (DSS) for the MDA operation. A robust multi-baseline Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (AT-InSAR) Formation Flying concept is proposed to combine several along-track baseline observations effectively for single-pass interferometry. Simulation results are presented to support the feasibility of implementing this acquisition mode with autonomous orbit control, using low-thrust actuation suitable for electric propulsion. To improve repeatability, a constellation of this formation concept is also proposed to combine the benefits of the DSS. An MDA application is considered as a hypothetical mission to be solved by this combined approach.
AB - Space-based Earth Observation (EO) systems have undergone a continuous evolution in the twenty-first century. With the help of space-based Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA), specially Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), their applicability across the world’s waterways, among others, has grown substantially. This research work explores the potential applicability of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Distributed Satellite Systems (DSS) for the MDA operation. A robust multi-baseline Along-Track Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (AT-InSAR) Formation Flying concept is proposed to combine several along-track baseline observations effectively for single-pass interferometry. Simulation results are presented to support the feasibility of implementing this acquisition mode with autonomous orbit control, using low-thrust actuation suitable for electric propulsion. To improve repeatability, a constellation of this formation concept is also proposed to combine the benefits of the DSS. An MDA application is considered as a hypothetical mission to be solved by this combined approach.
KW - astrionics
KW - autonomous orbit control
KW - autonomous systems
KW - constellation of formations
KW - control systems
KW - distributed satellite system
KW - electric propulsion
KW - Formation Flying
KW - intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)
KW - maritime domain awareness
KW - multi-baseline AT-InSAR
KW - Trusted Autonomous Satellite Operations (TASO)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149040751&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/aerospace10020176
DO - 10.3390/aerospace10020176
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85149040751
SN - 2226-4310
VL - 10
JO - Aerospace
JF - Aerospace
IS - 2
M1 - 176
ER -
