大气密度不确定性对在LEO的CubeSats轨道寿命估计的影响
Atmospheric density uncertainty effects on the orbital lifetime estimation for CubeSats at LEO
摘要：
低地球轨道上的超小型卫星，特别是立方体卫星，是监测地球周围大气和环境状况的一种低成本选择。例如，天气预报报告的数据可以通过这类小卫星定期获得。因此，对于学术机构、大学等，这一事实使超小型卫星成为一种非常有吸引力的方法，用于以适中的预算进行研究。在这个项目中，我们计算轨道寿命（或简单的寿命）的假设任务，涉及在低地球轨道的纳米卫星，我们的注意力集中在探索沿赤道线的区域。因此，在轨道力学的框架内，我们展示了这类任务在长期和短期内的可行性。预计将在南美洲北部、中非和南亚岛屿/国家应用。为了计算寿命，我们考虑了三种影响：i）重力，ii）地球变形和iii）大气密度。这些影响包括在绕地球的超小型卫星的运动方程中。在平均海平面（AMSL）以上200-800公里的初始高度下求解该方程后，我们计算并报告到达150公里AMSL的飞行时间。这些结果在这里被定义为寿命，并根据实验数据和估计计算不同的大气密度分布。最后，我们发现最低和最高的寿命为假设的任务，涉及小卫星在低地球轨道沿赤道线轨道，并提出上限密度相对不确定性，以估计可靠的寿命。
英文摘要：
Nanosatellites, and especially CubeSats, at low earth orbits (LEOs) are a low cost option for monitoring atmospheric and environmental conditions around Earth. For instance, data for weather forecast reports can be obtained periodically with these kind of small satellites. Therefore, to academic institutions, universities, etc., this fact makes nanosatellites a very attractive way for researching with a moderate budget. In this project we compute orbital lifetimes (or simply lifetimes) for hypothetical missions involving nanosatellites at LEO, focusing our attention on exploring regions along the equatorial line. Thus, in the framework of orbital mechanics, we show the viability for these kind of missions in a long and a short term. Applications are projected for countries in northern South America, central Africa and islands/countries in southern Asia. To compute lifetimes, we take into account three effects: i) gravitational, ii) Earth deformations and iii) atmospheric density. These effects are included in the motion equation for a nanosatellite around Earth. After solving this equation for initial altitudes in 200-800 km above mean sea level (AMSL), we compute and report flight times to arrive at 150 km AMSL. These results are defined here as lifetimes and they are calculated for different atmospheric-density profiles according to experimental data and estimations. In conclusion, we find lowest and highest lifetimes for hypothetical missions involving small satellites at LEO orbiting along the equatorial line, and propose upper limits for density relative uncertainties in order to estimate reliable lifetimes.
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