• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.11
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• pp.1112-1120
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• 2009

In this paper, the authors introduced a new approach to find the target orbits of each satellite in order to establish a temporary reconnaissance constellation mission to minimize the average revisit time (ART) while satisfying the constraint on fuel limit. Two distinct problems are dealt with: the first is to reconnoiter the local area with discriminating fuel constraint the second is to reconnoiter ground moving target with same fuel constraint. A preliminary effort in applying a genetic algorithm to those problems has also been demonstrated through simulation study. The results show that current ARTs of each mission are reduced by 41% and 42%, respectively, by relocating the orbit of each satellite. Naturally, the final result may depend on satellite orbits, sensor characteristics, allowable fuel cost, thruster capability, and maneuver strategies.