Performance Enhancement of FORMOSAT-3 Follow-on Using Formation Flying

衛星編隊飛行對福爾摩沙三號後續星系性能提升之探討

陳正興(Jeng-Shing Chern) ； 吳岸明(An-Ming Wu)

《中華科技大學學報》 47期 (2011/04) Pp. 145-156

https://doi.org/10.7095/JCUST.201104.0145

摘要

國家太空中心經過約二十年的努力，成功完成了三個福爾摩沙衛星計畫，所研發完成的衛星分別簡稱為福衛一號、福衛二號與福衛三號，深獲國際上的肯定。目前，國家太空中心正在規劃福衛三號的後續計畫，稱為福爾摩沙衛星七號計畫，簡稱福衛七號，預計在民國103至105年間發射。本文針對福衛七號若採用衛星編隊飛行(Satellite formation flying)，其性能會不會比福衛三號所採用的衛星星系飛行(Satellite constellation flying)好之問題，進行初步探討。由於福衛七號與福衛三號同樣應用掩星原理進行大氣層之探測，衛星姿態對探測結果影響甚小，衛星與衛星之間的相對位置也不必維持固定，因此衛星編隊飛行對福衛七號而言並不重要。此外，衛星編隊飛行所需要的發射成本較高，衛星控制與任務操作技術都較困難，相對的需要較長的研發時間，成本也相對增加。基於上述理由，福衛七號相較於福衛三號之改進重點，在於如何改變星系之軌道部署，以增加探測數據量，使探測數據達到最大值。至於衛星編隊飛行的重要性，根據福衛三號的經驗，將是在福衛七號部署的初期，也就是衛星儀器調校期間，衛星與衛星的儀器之間可以相互校正，達到最佳之調校結果，提升探測數據之準確性，增進福衛七號之探測成效。

關鍵字

福衛三號 ； 福衛七號 ； 衛星星系飛行 ； 衛星編隊飛行

並列摘要

After about 20 years of dedicated effort, the National Space Organization (NSPO) of Taiwan has successfully completed the development of Formosa satellites (FORMOSATs or FSs) 1 (FS1), 2 (FS2), and 3 (FS3). The international space community has given very positive comments on NSPO's contribution. Currently, NSPO is planning the future programs and designates FORMOSAT-7 (FS7) to be the follow-on of FS3. This paper presents the preliminary study results on the advantage of using formation flying for FS7 compared with the constellation flying of FS3. Due to the fact that the attitude control is not a major factor to affect the number of occultation data collected, it could be concluded that the formation flying is helpful but not mandatory in FS7. This conclusion is obtained by trading-off the complexity, cost, and development time of the program. We need to do is to design the orbits of the planned 12 micro-satellites to ensure the maximum number of data collection. However, during the deployment phase of FS3, it has been found that the formation flying immediately after the separation of the 6 satellites from the launch vehicle is a very important time period for instrument calibration onboard each individual satellite. Fortunately the 6 satellites of FS3 formed a formation immediately after separation from the launch vehicle without much extra effort. Therefore, no design change of the micro-satellite is required to accommodate the requirement. This experience can be duplicated in FS7 program.

並列關鍵字

FORMOSAT-3 ； FORMOSAT-7 ； satellite constellation flying ； satellite formation flying