A great deal of scientific interest exists regarding the permanently shadowed craters near the poles of the Moon where there may be frozen volatiles. These regions, particularly the Moon's South Pole, have been proposed for extensive robotic and human exploration. Unfortunately, they are typically not in view of Earth, and would require some form of communication relay to facilitate exploration via robotic and/or human missions. One solution for such a relay is a long-lived constellation of lunar telecommunication orbiters providing focused coverage at the pole of interest. Robust support requires this coverage to be continuous, redundant, and, in order to minimize costs, this constellation should consist of 3 satellites or fewer.
Coverage and control of constellations of elliptical inclined frozen lunar orbits
2005 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 2005 ; Lake Tahoe, CA, United States
2005-08-07
Conference paper
No indication
English
Stable Constellations of Frozen Elliptical Inclined Lunar Orbits
Online Contents | 2005
|Stable Constellations of Frozen Elliptical Inclined Lunar Orbits
Springer Verlag | 2005
|Stable Constellations of Frozen Elliptical Inclined Lunar Orbits
Online Contents | 2005
|Constellations of elliptical inclined lunar orbits providing polar and global coverage
Springer Verlag | 2006
|Constellations of elliptical inclined lunar orbits providing polar and global coverage
Online Contents | 2006
|