2017/09/25 by D. J. Cubillos Jara, J. A. Soliz Torrico, Jara, D. J. Cubillos +4
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Aerospace engineering #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #Engineering #Environmental science #FOS: Physical sciences #Geometry #Line (geometry) #Mathematics #Meteorology #Orbit (dynamics) #Physics #Satellite Communication Systems #Spacecraft Design and Technology #Spacecraft Dynamics and Control #astro-ph.EP
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1709.09128
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · 12 pages
openalex publication_date 2017/09/25 · arxiv created 2017/12/18 · arxiv updated 2017/12/19 · openalex created_date 2022/09/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nanosatellites, and especially CubeSats, at low earth orbits (LEOs) are a low\ncost option for monitoring atmospheric and environmental conditions around\nEarth. For instance, data for weather forecast reports can be obtained\nperiodically with these kind of small satellites. Therefore, to academic\ninstitutions, universities, etc., this fact makes nanosatellites a very\nattractive way for researching with a moderate budget.\n In this project we compute orbital lifetimes (or simply lifetimes) for\nhypothetical missions involving nanosatellites at LEO, focusing our attention\non exploring regions along the equatorial line. Thus, in the framework of\norbital mechanics, we show the viability for these kind of missions in a long\nand a short term. Applications are projected for countries in northern South\nAmerica, central Africa and islands/countries in southern Asia.\n To compute lifetimes, we take into account three effects: i) gravitational,\nii) Earth deformations and iii) atmospheric density. These effects are included\nin the motion equation for a nanosatellite around Earth. After solving this\nequation for initial altitudes in 200-800 km above mean sea level (AMSL), we\ncompute and report flight times to arrive at 150 km AMSL. These results are\ndefined here as lifetimes and they are calculated for different\natmospheric-density profiles according to experimental data and estimations.\n In conclusion, we find lowest and highest lifetimes for hypothetical missions\ninvolving small satellites at LEO orbiting along the equatorial line, and\npropose upper limits for density relative uncertainties in order to estimate\nreliable lifetimes.\n