Modeling and Dynamics of a Reconfigurable Satellite Constellation for Remote Sensing of Planetary Interiors

Abstract

There is a strong coupling between the interior, surface, atmosphere, and magnetosphere of planetary bodies which contains fundamental information about their evolution and dynamics. However, sparse observations beyond Earth limit the ability to isolate faint signals from background variability. This thesis establishes a scientific and engineering framework to address these limitations with a spatially and temporally distributed sensor array. The study maps mission goals to science and payload instrumentation requirements for Earth and planetary scenarios via a Science Traceability Matrix. The methodology includes performance and cost modeling with multi objective evolutionary algorithms to produce non-dominated constellation architectures. Furthermore, it develops a general model of spacecraft reconfiguration dynamics by exploiting the non-spherical gravity field of the central body, with results on propellant/time trade-offs. This work contributes to the "PULSAR" NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts proposal and was conducted within the NASA JPL Robotics Modeling and Simulation group.