Constellation Design of Remote Sensing Small Satellite for Infrastructure Monitoring in India

A constellation of remote sensing small satellite system has been developed for infrastructure monitoring in India by using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Payload. The low earth orbit (LEO) constellation of the small satellites is designed in a way, which can cover the entire footprint of India. Since India lies a little above the equatorial region, the orbital parameters are adjusted in a way that inclination of 36 degrees and RAAN varies from 70-130 degrees at a height of 600 km has been considered. A total number of 4 orbital planes are designed in which each orbital plane consisting 3 small satellites with 120-degrees true anomaly separation. Each satellite is capable of taking multiple look images with the minimum resolution of 1 meter per pixel and swath width of 10 km approx. The multiple look images captured by the SAR payload help in continuous infrastructure monitoring of our interested footprint area in India. To support the mission, each small satellite is supplied with earth sensors, sun sensors, GPS to accurately determine its position and attitude, and Control Moment Gyro (CMGs) which is capable of high slew rate maneuver with precise pointing at minimum power utilization. Further, each small satellite is equipped with a communication payload that uses X-band and VHF antenna, whereas the TT&C will use a high data-rate S-band transmitter. The satellite requires a powerful set of batteries to operate along with an origami-designed solar panel with the implementation of GaN-FETs to improve the performance and efficiency of solar power conversion. The paper presents only a coverage metrics analysis method of our designed constellation for our India footprint by considering the important metrics like revisit time, response time, and coverage efficiency. The data processing for the captured images is not presented here. The result shows that the average revisits time for our constellation ranges from about 15-35 min which is less than an hour and the average response time for this iteratively designed constellation ranges from about 25-120 min along with hundred percent coverage efficiency most of the time. Finally, it was concluded that each satellite has 70kg of total mass and costs around $ 0.75M to develop

Space-Air-Ground Integrated 6G Wireless Communication Networks: A Review of Antenna Technologies and Application Scenarios

A review of technological solutions and advances in the framework of a Vertical Heterogeneous Network (VHetNet) integrating satellite, airborne and terrestrial networks is presented. The disruptive features and challenges offered by a fruitful cooperation among these segments within a ubiquitous and seamless wireless connectivity are described. The available technologies and the key research directions for achieving global wireless coverage by considering all these layers are thoroughly discussed. Emphasis is placed on the available antenna systems in satellite, airborne and ground layers by highlighting strengths and weakness and by providing some interesting trends in research. A summary of the most suitable applicative scenarios for future 6G wireless communications are finally illustrated

SAR interferometry at Venus for topography and change detection

AbstractSince the Magellan radar mapping of Venus in the early 1990’s, techniques of synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) have become the standard approach to mapping topography and topographic change on Earth. Here we investigate a hypothetical radar mission to Venus that exploits these new methods. We focus on a single spacecraft repeat-pass InSAR mission and investigate the radar and mission parameters that would provide both high spatial resolution topography as well as the ability to detect subtle variations in the surface. Our preferred scenario is a longer-wavelength radar (S or L-band) placed in a near-circular orbit at 600km altitude. Using longer wavelengths minimizes the required radar bandwidth and thus the amount of data that will be transmitted back to earth; it relaxes orbital control and knowledge requirements. During the first mapping cycle a global topography map would be assembled from interferograms taken from adjacent orbits. This approach is viable due to the slow rotation rate of Venus, causing the interferometric baseline between adjacent orbits to vary from only 11km at the equator to zero at the inclination latitude. To overcome baseline decorrelation at lower latitudes, the center frequency of a repeated pass will be adjusted relative to the center frequency of its reference pass. During subsequent mapping cycles, small baseline SAR acquisitions will be used to search for surface decorrelation due to lava flows. While InSAR methods are used routinely on Earth, their application to Venus could be complicated by phase distortions caused by the thick Venus atmosphere

Towards secure & robust PNT for automated systems

This dissertation makes four contributions in support of secure and robust position, navigation, and timing (PNT) for automated systems. The first two relate to PNT security while the latter two address robust positioning for automated ground vehicles. The first contribution is a fundamental theory for provably-secure clock synchronization between two agents in a distributed automated system. All one-way synchronization protocols, such as those based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), are shown to be vulnerable to man-in-the-middle delay attacks. This contribution is the first to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for provably secure clock synchronization. The second contribution, also related to PNT security, is a three-year study of the world-wide GPS interference landscape based on data from a dual-frequency GNSS receiver operating continuously on the International Space Station (ISS). This work is the first publicly-reported space-based survey of GNSS interference, and unveils previously-unreported GNSS interference activity. The third contribution is a novel ground vehicle positioning technique that is robust to GNSS signal blockage, poor lighting conditions, and adverse weather events such as heavy rain and dense fog. The technique relies on sensors that are commonly available on automated vehicles and are insensitive to lighting and inclement weather: automotive radar, low-cost inertial measurement units (IMUs), and GNSS. Remarkably, it is shown that, given a prior radar map, the proposed technique operating on data from off-the-shelf all-weather automotive sensors can maintain sub-50-cm horizontal position accuracy during 60 min of GNSS-denied driving in downtown Austin, TX. This dissertation’s final contribution is an analysis and demonstration of the feasibility of crowd-sourced digital mapping for automated vehicles. Localization techniques, such as the one described in the previous contribution, rely on such digital maps for accuracy and robustness. A key enabler for large-scale up-to-date maps is enlisting the help of the very consumer vehicles that need the map to build and update it. A method for fusing multi-session vision data into a unified digital map is developed. The asymptotic limit of such a map’s globally-referenced position accuracy is explored for the case in which the mapping agents rely on low-cost GNSS receivers performing standard code-phase-based navigation. Experimental validation along a semi-urban route shows that low-cost consumer vehicles incrementally tighten the accuracy of the jointly-optimized digital map over time enough to support sub-lane-level positioning in a global frame of reference.Electrical and Computer Engineerin