Deterministic Multistage Constellation Reconfiguration Using Integer Programming and Sequential Decision-Making Methods

What is it about?

This study focuses on how to better adjust the positions and paths of Earth observation satellites in space, specifically for a process called "Multi-stage Constellation Reconfiguration." This means changing satellite orbits over several steps to get the best possible view of important areas on Earth. The goal is to get the most useful information from these satellites by targeting specific areas. The paper introduces a new mathematical method to find the best satellite positions. It also suggests two faster ways to make these adjustments, which work well even for large groups of satellites. The effectiveness of these methods is shown through tests, including one where they used data from Hurricane Harvey to demonstrate how adjusting satellite positions in multiple stages gives better results than doing it just once or not at all.

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