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.


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    Title :

    Coverage and control of constellations of elliptical inclined frozen lunar orbits


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    2005 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference ; 2005 ; Lake Tahoe, CA, United States


    Publication date :

    2005-08-07


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English