This paper describes a system for planning and scheduling science observations for fleets of Earth observing satellites. Input requests for imaging time on an Earth observing satellite are specified in terms of the type of data desired, the location to be observed, and an objective priority of satisfying the request. The problem is to find a sequence of start times for observations and supporti...

Abstract The number of satellites equipped with retroreflectors dedicated to Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) increases simultaneously the development and invention spherical geodetic satellites, low Earth orbiters (LEOs), Galileo other components Global Navigational System (GNSS). SLR GNSS techniques onboard LEO create possibility widening use observations for deriving station coordinates, which ...

During the past several years, an interest has g r o w n i n u s i n g c o m m e r c i a l telecommunications techniques to supply Telemetry and Command (T&C) services. An initial study of this concept was performed for NASA in 1996[1]. Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Space Operations Management Office (SOMO) has outlined plans to utilize satellite-based telec...

[1] Simultaneous all angle collocations (SAACs) of microwave humidity sounders (AMSU-B and MHS) on-board polar orbiting satellites are used to estimate scan-dependent biases. This method has distinct advantages over previous methods, such as that the estimated scan-dependent biases are not influenced by diurnal differences between the edges of the scan and the biases can be estimated for both s...

On-orbit servicing is the process of improving a space-based capability through a combination of in-orbit activities which may include inspection; rendezvous and docking; and value-added modifications to a satellite’s position, orientation, and operational status. As a means to extend the useful life or operational flexibility of spacecraft, on-orbit servicing constitutes one pathway to a respo...

Finding ships from space Space-based imaging enables the surveillance of the planet’s oceans for maritime traffic, increasingly in nearreal-time. The challenges are in analysing the satellite images: to find ships and their positions; to determine what kind of ships they are; to estimation their speed and course; and to deduce their activity. We have two types of sensors at our disposal: Synthe...

Remotely sensed spatio-temporal datasets on the order of megabytes to terrabytes are becoming more common. For example, polar-orbiting satellites observe Earth from space, monitoring the Earth’s atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial processes, and generate massive amounts of environmental data. The current generation of satellites, such as the National Aeronautic and Space Administration’s (NAS...

Moons orbiting extrasolar planets are the next class of object to be observed and characterized for possible habitability. Like the host-planets to their host-star, exomoons have a limiting radius at which they may be gravitationally bound, or the Hill radius. In addition, they also have a distance at which they will become tidally locked and therefore in synchronous rotation with the planet. W...

We present a study of satellites in orbit around a high-resolution, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) galaxy simulated in a cosmological context. The simulated galaxy is approximately of the same mass as the Milky Way. The cumulative number of luminous satellites at z= 0 is similar to the observed system of satellites orbiting the Milky Way although an analysis of the satellite mass functio...