Autonomous Mission Planning for OLFAR: A Satellite Swarm in Lunar Orbit for Radio Astronomy
S. Mok (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
Jian Guo (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
Eberhard K.A. Gill (TU Delft - Space Engineering)
RT Rajan (TU Delft - Electronics)
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Abstract
Orbiting Low Frequency Array for Radio Astronomy (OLFAR) is a radio astronomy mission that has been studied since 2010 by several Dutch universities and research institutes. The mission aims at producing sky maps by collecting cosmic signals at ultra-low wavelengths regimes, below the 30 MHz frequency band. A satellite swarm comprising more than 10 satellites equipped with passive antennas will be deployed in space where the radio frequency interference can be minimized, e.g., on the far side of the moon. So far, several studies have been devoted to design the space segment, which consists of the payload and platform elements. However, the ground segment, particularly the mission planning system has not yet been designed in detail. In this paper, a systematical mission planning method for OLFAR is presented after a mission planning problem is formulated based on the current satellite design.