Graphical Abstract
STEM with Scientific Writing is a course at Mass Academy taught by Dr. Kevin Crowthers. A really big part of STEM are both of the projects that we do throughout the year, the one you are looking at right now, and our STEM II project which you can look further into in the other tab. In STEM I, we conduct research on topics we enjoy and formulate a project. Throughout the year, we do many writing assignments about our project that mimic real life scientific writing. At the end of the year, we present our projects at the STEM fair.
My dad is an electrical engineer, and he does a lot of work with satellite communications. One day we ended up talking about this problem, where the South Pole lacks consistent communications. I've always had a fascination with Physics, so I thought about making it my STEM project. I ended up working through GMAT (General Mission Analysis Tool) to find an optimal orbit for a pair of satellites to provide the South Pole with seamless communications.
The South Pole lacks consistent and reliable communications with the rest of the world, with either poor data processing rates or not being covered for a full 24 hours.
The aim is to model a satellite's orbit that would provide the South Pole with 24/7 communications.
Figure 1: The top-down view of the finalized satellite orbit.
Figure 2: The ground track of the finalized satellite orbit.
Figure 3: The satellite footprint of both satellites when they are completely opposite to each other in the orbit, as shown in in figures 1 and 2.
Figure 4: A table showing the coverage both satellites provide in given instances during the orbit. Each datum is 2 hours apart.