Date of Award

Summer 2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Program/Concentration

Aerospace Engineering

Committee Director

Brett Newman

Committee Member

Robert L. Ash

Committee Member

Colin P. Britcher

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E535 G87 2010

Abstract

In this thesis, conditions and design requirements for a repeating ground track for a low Earth orbit satellite have been examined and several repeating ground tracks have been designed for a single area on the Earth. In order to construct and validate desired orbital results, the study has two phases which also help to investigate repeating ground track conditions: the fist one is the design phase, and second one is the simulation phase. The common objective of all the case studies is to present a closed ground track on the target by using the design parameters. In order to design a repeating ground track orbit, different approaches such as the flower constellation, the graphical approach, and the iterative method are used. The gravitational potential of the Earth and the condition for repeating ground track expressions are fundamental equations used in all design methods. The simulation phase depends on Runge-Kutta numerical integration, which is applied to the position and velocity vectors of the satellite on the designed orbit. Some of the disturbing effects such as drag and solar pressure are neglected thorough the design. However, simulation is used to predict the impact of drag, which is neglected in the case studies.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/hppa-ds86

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