ANDROMEDA: Mission Design and Attitude Optimization for a Constellation of Microsatellites in Lunar Orbit

This thesis work was centred on the processes of mission design and attitude optimization for a lunar constellation of micro-satellites aimed at providing real-time communication and navigation services to surface and orbiting users, as part of the ANDROMEDA project by Argotec. Starting from the mission’s envisioned contribution to the global effort of further exploring the Moon and establishing sustainable human outposts, the main objectives of ANDROMEDA were defined. These represented the fundamental elements driving the mission design, whose process is reported in detail, leading from a preliminary orbital configuration study to an optimized, consolidated system architecture. An overview of the lunar environment is then presented to show its peculiar set of forces and disturbance effects on a satellite’s trajectory and attitude. The characteristics required for a long term operativity drove the orbit selection towards a configuration focused on stability and coverage performance. Furthermore, as the main operative scenarios carried out by ANDROMEDA, the communication and navigation configurations were established, with a focus on network design and constellation coverage performance. All lifetime operations were planned, from the initial launch and commissioning to the end-of-life disposal and replacement strategy. Finally, the satellite platform was delineated in its main functionalities, with an optimization effort to reduce power loads and preserve the spacecraft optimal functionality. The overall result from this work is a solid baseline for the ANDROMEDA concept, from which a next phase of lower-level design can take place and further build on the results of the preliminary analyses and assessments.