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Maintaining large-scale satellite constellations using logistics approach

Today, large-scale communication satellite constellations, also known as megaconstellations, have been more and more popular. OneWeb launched the first batch of satellites of an initial 650-satellite constellation in February 2019, and SpaceX also launched the first batch of its 12,000-satellite constellation in May 2019. On July 8, Amazon also filed an application with the FCC for its planned satellite constellation with 3,236 satellites. These satellite constellations are expected to be a game changer by realizing the worldwide satellite Internet service.

However, the unprecedently large scale of these megaconstellations also brings numerous challenges, some of which are hidden and not well-explored. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign identified a critical hidden challenge about replacing the broken satellites in megaconstellations and proposed a unique solution with inventory control methods.

"Maintaining these large-scale megaconstellations efficiently is far more complex than the traditional space systems. In fact, it has become more and more like a ground logistics problem that FedEx or UPS has been working on. So we tackled this megaconstellation maintenance problem leveraging the idea from ground logistics, which turns out to be not only unique and interesting but also very suitable in this context" said Koki Ho, assistant professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at U of I.

The challenge Ho described is to efficiently swap out a new satellite for one that breaks. For telecommunications companies, broken satellites mean interrupted communications and Internet service, which leads to disgruntled customers and loss of revenue.

"Deploying a large-scale constellation is one problem, but maintaining it is another possibly more challenging problem," Ho said. "When the satellites break, providing a spare quickly is important so there is little gap in the service. Companies need continuous service to provide global coverage. In order to achieve that, we need to have sufficient spares in orbit. The question is: how many would be sufficient. Can we think of a smarter way to use as few satellites as possible to satisfy the gap requirement?"

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