Staged Deployment of Communications Satellite Constellations in Low Earth Orbit

The “traditional” way of designing constellations of communications satellites in low Earth orbit is to optimize the design for a specified global capacity. This approach is based on a forecast of the expected number of users and their activity level, both of which are highly uncertain. This can lead to economic failure if the actual demand is significantly smaller than the one predicted. This paper presents an alternative flexible approach. The idea is to deploy the constellation progressively, starting with a smaller, more affordable capacity that can be increased in stages as necessary by launching additional satellites and reconfiguring the existing constellation in orbit. It is shown how to find the best reconfigurable constellations within a given design space. The approach, in effect, provides system designers and managers with real options that enable them to match the system evolution path to the actual unfolding demand scenario. A case study demonstrates significant economic benefits of the proposed approach, when applied to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations of communications satellites. In the process, life cycle cost and capacity are traded against each other for a given fixed per-channel performance requirement. The benefits of the staged approach demonstrably increase, with greater levels of demand uncertainty. A generalized framework is proposed for large capacity systems facing high demand uncertainty.