Optimizing Coverage and Revisit Time in Sparse Military Satellite Constellations: A Comparison of Traditional Approaches and Genetic Algorithms

This is a NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA report procured by the Pentagon and made available for public release. It has been reproduced in the best form available to the Pentagon. It is not spiral-bound, but rather assembled with Velobinding in a soft, white linen cover. The Storming Media report number is A062724. The abstract provided by the Pentagon follows: Sparse military satellite constellations were designed using two methods: a traditional approach and a genetic algorithm. One of the traditional constellation designs was the Discoverer II space based radar. Discoverer II was an 8 plane, 24 satellite, Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Walker constellation designed to provide high-range resolution ground moving target indication (HRR-GMTI), synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging and high resolution digital terrain mapping. The traditional method designed 9-ball, 12-ball, 18-ball, and 24-ball Walker constellations. The genetic algorithm created constellations by deriving a phenotype from a triploid genotype encoding of orbital elements. The performance of both design methods were compared using a computer simulation. The fitness of each constellation was calculated using maximum gap time, maximum revisit time, and percent coverage. The goal was to determine if one design method would consistently outperform the other. The genetic algorithm offered a fitness improvement over traditional constellation design methods in all cases except the 24-ball constellation where it demonstrated comparable results. The genetic algorithm improvement over the traditional constellations increased as the number of satellites per constellation decreased. A derived equation related revisit time to the number of ship tracks maintained.