Analytical Mission Plan for Tracking Moving Targets with a Small Reconfigurable Satellite Constellation

Reconfigurable Satellite Constellations, can help provide data to mitigate developing dynamic natural disasters such as hurricanes. This paper provides an analytical solution whereby a small reconfigurable satellite constellation can be manoeuvred to provide repeated observations of moving targets. Tracking moving targets requires precise timing of passes over the target, compared with a targeting solution for static targets, which is time-independent. This paper outlines a procedure for calculating the required manoeuvres to pass over a moving target, accounting for the positions of both the moving target and the changing satellite path with respect to Earth over time. Through investigation it emerges that there is a linear relationship between the magnitude of the longitudinal shift of the ground track and the required time for that shift. Additionally, no matter how the longitude shifts are staged over different orbits within a shift cycle the total time for the shift remains the same. The method was successfully tested through a case study tracking Hurricane Harvey over a 16-day period with a single satellite simulation. The satellite passed over the hurricane approximately every 24 hours within a time discrepancy of less than one minute on 14 out of 16 occasions and less than 11 minutes on all occasions.