Street of Coverage Constellation for Space Based Solar Power

With the recent activities picking up in the space-based solar power (SBSP) satellite as an available solution for the increasing energy demands, the authors have proposed the constellations of 8 or 18 satellites spread across the lower earth orbit (LEO) from 200–2000 Km with 19 orbital planes having the separation of 100 km. The gain of the transmitting (Tx) antenna for different altitude (H) is calculated keeping the receiving antenna again constant (Rx). The input power of 100 dBm is assumed which is similar to NASA plan for launching space based solar power for low earth orbit (LEO) in the future. The six orbital parameters for respective H is calculated using the open source software, i.e., satellite orbit simulator. The street of coverage constellation is choosen to have the continuous coverage for 40° inclination for ±10 latitude near equator. It is observed that for this inclination, the continuous coverage is only possible for H of 1300 Km only. For lower orbit operation, the inclination has to be less than 40°. The power received from the different ground stations (GS) can be combined in real time so as to distribute it locally.